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Boy Scouts of the Air Books 


The Boy Scouts of the Air 
in the Dismal Swamp 







. 

. 



I 











9 


■ 




















• ■ . , ' 

’ 







































































“It’s a bear!” 


gasped Happj 








The 


Boy Scouts of the Air 

in the Dismal Swamp 


BY 

GORDON STUART 



Frontispiece by Kirke Bride 


The Reilly & Lee Co. 
Chicago 



Copyright, 1920 
By 

The Reilly & Lee Co. 


Made in V. 8. A. 


OCT -4 IS20 

The Boy Scouts of the Air in the Dismal Swamp 


©CI.A576704 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER PAGE 

I The Mystery of the Dismal Swamp 7 
II Aboard the Carrie Call. ., ..... 20 

III The Tale that Happy Eead 28 

IV The Mysterious Launch 38 

V Into the Wilderness . 50 

VI Near the Heart of the Mystery. . . . 57 

VII Uncle Abe Entertains 69 

VIII The Phantom Boat.. 85 

IX On Tiptoe of Expectancy.. 91 

X The Flivver is Unmasked 104 

XI A Midnight Awakening 121 

XII The Encounter on the Lake ...... 135 

XIII The Trappers Trapped..: 148 

XIV Missing > 161 

XV A Night of Anxiety. 170 

XVI Rescue from the Air 184 

XVII Capturing a Moonshiner 198 

XVIII The Reward of the Brave. 213 

XIX Headlight Puts One Over.. 220 



The Boy Scouts of the Air 
in the Dismal Swamp 

CHAPTER I 

THE MYSTERY OF THE DISMAL. SWAMP 

“ Great balls of fire, kid! Do you mean we’re 
going to camp up in that Swamp all full of rattlers 
and bears and every other sort of varmint? No, 
sir, excuse me! ” 

The speaker, Pendleton Roy all, known as 
“ Penny ” for short, was a slender, bright-faced 
lad of fifteen, no coward at heart, but with the 
conviction that discretion is the better part of 
valor. 

“ You’re a nice sort of a scout, ain’t you? ” 
retorted Dinks Watts, his sturdy companion. 
“ The real sort would drop a rock on the head 
of a snake if he looked at him kinder sassy.” 

“ Haven’t heard of you heaving rocks at any 
snake unless it was a caged one in a circus, and 
7 


8 


The Boy Scouts of the Air 


I don’t believe yon would have the nerve to then,” 
returned Penny sarcastically. 

“ Keep the chip on your shoulder, old Govern- 
ment mule,” Dinks came hack, without heat, for 
this form of amicable sparring was much indulged 
in by the two friends. i 4 Everybody knows this 
town of Norfolk runs on your nerve, don’t they? 
But let’s stop complimenting one another, and 
talk business. That Dismal Swamp ain’t near 
as bad as you think it is. It’s covered on one side 
of the canal with farms, with corn growing twenty 
feet high and potatoes as big as your foot; and 
even right in the Swamp there’s nothing to hurt 
you. 

“ My Uncle Bill says those tales about the 
snakes hanging from the branches of the trees 
like moss is all bunk; and what snakes there are 
will come when you whistle. Then, he read me 
a poem by a man named Moore about the woman 
and the firefly lamp and her making her bed up 
there. You know, there wouldn’t any woman lie 
around like that if there were any varmints about 
to scare her. ’ ’ 

“ Sounds sort of plausible,” conceded Penny, 
with a certain feeling of pride at his use of the 


Mystery of the Dismal Swamp 


9 


last word, “ but what in the name o’ snakes did 
Buck Walke want to pick out that place for us 
to camp in for! ” 

“ That’s a mystery,” declared the other with 
a quizzical look on his sunbrowned face, “ a 
mystery. ’ 9 

“ A mystery! What sort of a mystery! ” in- 
quired Penny eagerly. 

“ It’s a secret mystery. Sorry I can’t tell you, 
bo. Wish I could, but we aviators are pledged to 
keep mum on it. Get me! ” 

“ Is it about an airplane! ” urged Penny, with 
the growing hope of worming something out of 
his companion. 

“ You’ve said it, kid. Walke told me I could 
give that much away, but not another word. You 
can’t enjoy a surprise if you know what it is 
before it happens. You ought to feel sorry for 
me for knowing. Just think of the creeps you 
fellows are going to feel. So quit your pumping; 
you don’t get another drop.” 

Dinks Watts assumed an air of superiority over 
the rest of his “ bunch ” on account of his posses- 
sion of the badge for aviation and from the fact 
that he was for this reason so much the deeper 


10 


The Boy Scouts, of the Air 


in the confidence of Lieutenant Walke, their 
scoutmaster, who, having distinguished himself in 
Europe by notable feats in the air service, was 
now in Government service at Langley Field. 

“ All right then,” said Penny rather ruefully, 
“ I’ll let that drop, but I reckon we can talk about 
the camping part, can’t we? ” 

“ Sure thing. No mystery about that. We 
four fellows, Headlight Taylor, Happy Chandler, 
you and I are going up in Headlight’s gasoline 
launch, the Carrie Call , and rig up a camp on the 
shore of the Dismal Swamp Lake and, in a day 
or two, Walke is going to fly up to Wallaceton, 
and come over and join us, and then something 
will be doing. Things will begin to hum, and 
that mystery is some mystery, believe rmih.” 

“ Is there any good place up there to camp? ” 
asked Penny, ignoring with great effort the tan- 
talizing finish of Dinks’ remark. 

“ Walke says right near where you come in 
the Lake there’s a bully spot for a camp, the only 
good high ground anywhere around.” 

“ Any chance of catching malaria? ” insisted 
the ever cautious Penny. 

* 6 Catch your grandmother! I’d like to see you 


Mystery of the Dismal Swamp 


11 


in tlie wilds of Africa hunting hardbeasts,” 
(Dinks probably meant “ hartebeests ”), “ or 
navigating the River of Doubt. With Teddy Roose- 
velt, that time, they had to eat quinine same as 
you do Peter’s chocolate. Don’t you know the 
juniper water up there is a sure cure for malaria? 
Besides, this is just a little after the middle of 
June, and the mosquitoes don’t get good and busy 
till later. You’ve got a heap bigger chance get- 
ting pumped with it here on Granby Street than 
you have in the Great Dismal. That’s one of the 
healthiest places in the world. Up there ’most 
anybody who wants to can live to be a hundred 
years old. So cut out the scare stuff. Ain’t your 
name Penny Royall? That’s enough to keep off 
mosquitoes, ain’t it? ” 

Penny declared this joke was so old it had 
whiskers, and held it in great contempt. 

“ All right, bud, I’m with you. Do we take 
guns? ” 

“ Bet your life we take guns. It’s not the regu- 
lar hunting season, but a bear might grin at us, 
and we’d have to defend ourselves, wouldn’t 
we? ” 

“ Bear! ” echoed Penny. 


12 


The Boy Scouts of the Air 


“ I reckon there are bears up there. My Uncle 
Bill says that when he was a boy, he was picking 
berries on one side of a bush in the Swamp and 
he heard a noise and looked np and Gosh! there 
was a big black sucker picking berries on the other 
side, looking at him sassy as you please, like he 
was asking, 6 What in the mischief are you swip- 
ing my berries for! ’ ” 

“ What did he do,” asked Penny, with wide 
open eyes. 

“ Oh, he just went on picking. He didn’t have 
his gun with him, so he just went on picking. You 
know the way to handle a wild beast in a case like 
that is not to show any fear, like the man in the 
lion’s cage, and then the varmints begin to have 
some respect for you, but if you bat an eye, then, 
good night! So Uncle Bill just finished picking 
all he wanted and then quietly walked off with- 
out looking back.” 

‘ ‘ What did the bear do ! Is ’pose he went home 
arm in arm with him! Some likely lie,” shot 
back Penny. 

“ How did he know! Didn’t I tell you he 
didn’t look back. You can’t know what happens 
behind your back if you don’t look, can you! All 


Mystery of the Dismal Swamp 


13 


he knows is that he got back home with a hat full 
of blackberries.” 

“ Tell that to the marines. You must think I’m 
soft,” declared the other contemptuously. 

“ If I’m kidding you he kidded me. I’m hand- 
ing it to you right oft his tongue. You wouldn’t 
call my Uncle Bill a liar, would you? ” 

“ I didn’t call your Uncle Bill anything.” 

“ You better not. Well, I’m not going to let 
any bear eat off the same bush with me, you may 
gamble on that. I’m going to plug up his optics 
with lead. By Grabs, wouldn’t it be great if we 
brought one home and fed up the family on bear- 
steak? ” 

“ Do people eat bearsteak? ” queried Penny in 
surprise. 

“ Well, I should smile! They say it’s as good 
as beefsteak, only you have to work your grinders 
a little harder. But look who’s here. Come on, 
Happy, you and Headlight, and let’s dope out 
some more about the big trip. I’ve just been 
giving Penny a little backbone.” 

The turn in Dinks’ remarks was occasioned by 
the appearance from around the corner of two 
boys about sixteen. The one addressed as Happy 


14 


The Boy Scouts of the Air 


was Henry Chandler, a tall, light-haired, sunny- 
faced chap with a smile that his friends said 
could not he wiped off with a brickbat. The 
other was shorter and stockier, with a reddish 
face sprinkled with freckles and a look that 
spelled determination and pluck of the never-say- 
die variety. This was Jack Taylor, more gen- 
erally known as “ Headlight ” for obvious 
reasons. 

“ Any later dope? ” inquired Happy as the 
newcomers joined those standing on the street 
corner. ‘ ‘ Headlight tells me we start next Mon- 
day in the Carrie Call and, oh boy ! I’m all worked 
up over that mystery. Is it straight stuff ? ’ ’ 

“ Straight is right! Walke and myself have 
got the Sherlock Holmes surprise for you fellows 
that’s going to make your hair stand on end,” 
said Dinks. 

“ Not soon,” asserted Happy removing his cap 
and displaying a pate shorn even with the sur- 
face. “ Mother had her poodle done up for the 
summer yesterday, so I caught the notion and 
went down and got myself barbered in the same 
style. You just ought to have seen her expres- 
sion when I got home. You’d a split your sides.” 


Mystery of the Dismal Swamp 


15 


“ It doesn’t improve your beauty, I can give 
you that,” said Penny. 

“ No remarks, Adonis,” returned Happy, 
“ but speaking of dogs, I think I’ll take Edith up 
on the trip with us.” 

Headlight grinned. 

‘ ‘ Edith ! ’ ’ exclaimed Dinks. ‘ 6 What are you 
giving us ? ” 

Penny likewise was dumbfounded at the sug- 
gestion of a feminine addition to the party. 

“ Oh, Edith,” returned Happy with his comical 
drawl, “ he’s a pointer Father has given me. 
Some pointer he is.” 

“ He! What do you call a he-dog Edith for! ” 
questioned Dinks, laughing. 

6 i Oh, that ’s where you have some fun. People 
laugh every time I call him. Theif think 1 think 
he’s a lady.” 

“ If you ain’t a lulu! But you don’t take any 
Edith dogs on this trip. It’s out of season, and 
she — he might get us in trouble.” 

“ All right, Cap, but we ought to get up some 
excitement on the side. By the way, fellows, see 
about the slacker they say has beat it up in the 
Swamp somewhere! ” 


16 The Boy Scouts of the Air 

“ What slacker? ” asked Dinks and Penny in 
chorus. 

“ Don’t you read the newspapers? Yester- 
day’s Landmark says a rich guy from New York, 
who’s been wandering round the country from 
about the time the war began, has been seen by 
somebody near Suffolk and recognized from 
his picture in the paper. Think he’s hiding some- 
where in the Swamp. There’s a whopping big 
reward offered. See what might happen, 
fellows? ” 

“ Gee! ” said Dinks with growing excitement, 
u We might run him down. Well, I reckon we do 
need our guns. Some big game! And that re- 
minds me of a piece I found in an old magazine 
at home, a tale about a place where an old hermit 
used to live on a ridge way back in the Swamp. 
That happened about sixty years ago, but I bet 
that sucker is kin to that hermit, for he was a 
slacker too.” 

“ Give us the dope,” urged Happy. 

“ Oh, I can’t remember all that tale, but I’ll 
bring it down to the boat Monday and read it to 
you fellows. He lived in a place in the Swamp 
where they didn’t find him for years, and he had 


Mystery of the Dismal Swamp 17 

some kids, and I bet dollars to doughnuts that 
scoundrel is his grandson and knows about that 
Long Ridge. Boys, we are on a hot trail. You 
have to know a combination to find that road to 
the ridge, and I bet there are markings on the 
trees. Gee ! I believe we ’ll get him. ’ ’ 

Dinks’ eyes glowed with excitement. 

\ ‘ Regular detective story, ’ ’ observed Headlight 
with growing enthusiasm. “ The interest grows. 
I told you we ’d scare up some excitement besides 
Dinks ’ airplane mystery. Just keep mum, and 
maybe we’ll come back with a slacker and a bear 
and a big reward in gold. Happy, don’t forget to 
get some rope to tie that scoundrel with. Gee 
whiz! the plot thickens. But look here, don’t say 
anything about this at home. You know how 
scary parents are.” 

‘ 6 But they all trust Buck Walke, don’t they?” 
suggested Penny. 

“ Sure they do, though Dinks’ dad is the only 
one that will let his son go up in a plane.” This 
from Happy. 

“ That’s because I’ve got the badge, of 
course,” explained Dinks loftily. “ But I guar- 
antee this, before we get back to this old town 


18 


The Boy Scouts of the Air 


every fellow in the crew will be qualified if he’s 
got the stuff in him.” 

“ Oh, say, Dinks,” pleaded Happy, “ just give 
us a nibble about that mystery. Have a heart ! ’ ’ 

“ No, sir,” snapped Dinks, “ and look here, all 
of you fellows, not another word of pumping. 
You know our motto, so shut up.” 

“ Eight you are,” assented Happy with cheer- 
ful resignation. 

“ That’s the spirit,” chorused Headlight. 
6 6 And I say let ’s make Dinks captain of the squad 
till Buck arrives on the scene.” 

Penny and Happy readily agreed to this pro- 
posal, and the chosen leader proceeded to assert 
his authority. 

‘ ‘ Headlight, you have the launch ready by eight 
Monday morning, and you two others get the 
equipment together. We’ve already agreed on 
what we need, and be sure to have everything 
spick and span. Though this is not a regular 
squad, everything’s got to be in regulation scout 
style. You all have camped enough not to need 
any coaching about that, but read up the Scout 
Book again before we start. All of us ought to 
be able to qualify for the forestry badge on this 


Mystery of the Dismal Swamp 


19 


trip, and if yon don’t get the aviation it won’t 
be onr fault. Trust Captain Watts and Lieu- 
tenant Walke for that.” 

The last statement was more exciting to the 
three boys than any other prospect offered. In 
sight, then, was an opportunity to stand on a 
level with the redoubtable Dinks, and the fact 
that mystery was involved lent additional spice 
to their anticipations. Also, there was the chance 
of bringing in a bear and the possibility of run- 
ning down still more important game in the per- 
son of a slacker. So when they finally parted, 
each was filled with as many thrills as he had ever 
hoped to entertain. 


CHAPTER II 


ABOARD THE CARRIE CALL 

Monday dawned clear and cool. A sultry spell 
of a week’s duration had given place to what 
promised to he one of those delightful periods of 
weather not infrequently experienced in Eastern 
Virginia the latter part of June. So when Head- 
light Taylor spun down to the water’s edge in 
his father’s auto packed with the equipment and 
supplies for the trip, he experienced a double 
exhilaration, under the influence of the fresh salt 
breeze that fanned his cheeks and the joyous 
anticipation of the adventure. 

The Carrie Call, his beloved gasoline launch, 
was moored to a floating wharf that rose and fell 
with the swell of the water of a basin of perhaps 
fifty yards wide, known as The Hague. With the 
assistance of the chauffeur it took the boy but 
a short time to get all the supplies stowed in the 
proper space aboard. This done, he dismissed 
his assistant and set himself to the task of get- 
20 


Aboard the Carrie Call 


21 


ting the launch shipshape for the trip. There 
would still be an hour or so before the other 
members of the crew might be expected to arrive, 
so he had plenty of time to complete this duty 
and then give himself over to musing on the possi- 
bilities of the trip and to speculation over the 
airplane mystery that Dinks so carefully guarded. 

A note had been received from Walke, telling 
the boys to start without fail, and promising to 
join them the day after they had established their 
camp. The fact that they were to start off with- 
out the direction of the older man lent spice to 
the adventure, and they anticipated no difficulty 
in finding the site for the camp from the full direc- 
tions given. Everything was to be in perfect trim 
by the time he joined them. He expected to be 
very critical, he said, and see whether they had 
forgotten the lessons he drilled into them when 
they were tenderfeet in the days just before the 
United States entered the Great War. 

If Buck had been something of a hero to them 
in the earlier time, his glory in their eyes had 
grown enormously since he had brought down 
enemy planes in the most thrilling aerial battles 
and won all sorts of honors and distinctions. Yet, 


22 


The Boy Scouts of the Air 


with all this, he was the same old Buck to them. 
He refused to allow them to tack any title to his 
name. He was the same matter of fact fellow, 
and seemed, for all his twenty-five years, to be 
more companionable than ever. Solid and trust- 
worthy qualities he had that made his word law 
with their parents, so when this present trip 
came up a ready assent was gained from all, with 
the understanding that the three inexperienced 
boys should not go up in an airplane until their 
preliminary training was complete. They were 
allowed to take guns for bear, esteemed by the 
parents as something of a myth. 

With all these matters settled, Headlight was 
prepared to enjoy himself to the full. Carrie Call 
in flesh and blood, after whom his boat was named, 
had taken leave of him the evening before with 
more expressions of anxiety than he had reason 
to hope for, and this fact added to his happiness 
and inspired him with particular pride in seeing 
that her namesake looked its best that morning. 
He tested the engine, by running a few turns 
about the basin, saw that all the brasses were 
polished to the highest perfection and by a quar- 
ter to eight he was through his labors and had 


« Aboard the Carrie Call 


23 


stretched himself out with hat over his eyes to 
meditate at ease. Indeed, he was so absorbed in 
this last pleasing occupation that when Happy 
Chandler bounded into the boat and shook it from 
stem to stern, he jumped up with a start. 

“ Doggone your hide! what do you mean by 
treating the Carrie Call that way? ” he exclaimed 
almost as fiercely as if Happy had insulted the 
fair maiden after whom it was named. 

“ Just wanted to wake you up, you lazy 
scoundrel, ” returned Happy with a laugh. 

“Lazy! Lazy! Why, I’ve been down here 
working like a deck hand while the rest of you 
guys have been pressing mattresses.” 

“ The old girl does look pretty keen,” con- 
ceded Happy, casting his eye about with undis- 
guised admiration. “ And all the stuff: bunked 
too,” he added, noting the tidy parcels arranged 
under the seats. “ It was all right sending our 
junk around to your house, wasn’t it? You are 
the only lucky guy who owns a chauffeur, and you 
know there wasn’t a chance of getting our dads 
to run us down this early in the morning.” 

“ But where in the thunder are the other 
two? ” 


24 The Boy Scouts of the Air 

44 Bet your life they ? 11 be toddling along soon.” 

It was in fact but a very few minutes when 
Dinks and Penny hove in sight and, as soon as 
they espied the boat, raised a cheer and made for 
the wharf at a run. No sooner were they aboard 
than things began to hum. Dinks, something of 
a machinist himself, assisted Headlight with the 
engine, and after getting it started, seated him- 
self at the rudder and gave the word to start. 

44 Didn’t forget that mag, did you, Dinks ? ” 
asked Happy as the boat was skimming out of 
the basin into the open harbor. 

4 4 Bet your life I didn’t,” said Dinks, using his 
free hand to extract from a trouser pocket what 
appeared to be a well worn pamphlet. 4 4 As soon 
as we get well up the river, one of you two fellows 
doing nothing can read it out loud.” 

This was quite satisfactory, as for the time 
being the scene around absorbed all their atten- 
tion — a scene in its main features by no means 
novel, but, owing to its changing aspects, furnish- 
ing a never-dying interest. The water glittered 
beneath the fast mounting sun, and the balmy salt 
breeze fanned their faces to a delicious feeling of 
stimulation. On the left extended the great 


25 


Aboard the Carrie Call 

wharves and warehouses of the port of Norfolk, 
with numberless vessels, great and small, lying 
in the slips; to the right appeared the great, 
white-columned Naval Hospital gleaming amid 
the dense pine woods. In front spread the har- 
bor covered with craft of all kinds, including un- 
comely ferryboats plying between the cities on 
either shore, and leaving long swells in their 
wake. 

Suddenly all eyes were raised to watch an air- 
plane soaring far overhead. 

44 Gee! I bet that’s Buck seeing us off,” sug- 
gested Penny. 

44 Buck, the mischief! ” countered Dinks. 
44 Didn’t he write to us he was busy at Langley 
Field repairing his flyer? Use a little headwork, 
bonehead. ’ 9 

44 Forgot about the engine trouble,” said 
Penny. 44 Hope he won’t fail to get up to-mor- 
row. The longer he takes the more I’ll feel like 
busting about — ” And then he paused. 

44 You better had stop,” exploded Dinks. 
4 4 You didn’t say c mystery,’ but you thought it 
inside, where I haven’t got any authority, but if 
you let it out I’ll chuck you right overboard.” 


26 


The Boy Scouts of the Air 


u S’pose you try,” retorted Penny, and satis- 
fied with this show of resistance, subsided with a 
grin and an i ‘ Aye ! aye ! sir ! ’ ’ 

Up the Elizabeth River, misnamed “ river,” 
but really merely an inlet from the salt waters of 
the bay, they chugged on into the Southern 
Branch that began to narrow between the 
suburbs of the town of Berkley on the one hand 
and the Norfolk Navy Yard on the other. The 
latter held the boys* attention. It was already 
beginning to stir with industry. Workmen were 
streaming into the vast workshops ; marines were 
drilling in the parade grounds; sailors were 
climbing the riggings of the ships moored along 
the quays ; and the ships under repair in the im- 
mense dry docks were receiving their army of 
mechanics. 

In a quarter of an hour the boys’ little craft 
had passed this busy scene and the crew found 
nothing more interesting to engage their atten- 
tion than muddy marshes along the shore, clumps 
of woods in the background, scattered farm- 
houses and negro cabins, and, on the stream, occa- 
sional sail boats or a tug with its trailing raft of 
logs. As interest in these things flagged, Happy 


Aboard the Carrie Call 27 

returned to the matter of the story, and was 
promptly requested by Dinks to act as reader. 

While the others settled themselves to inter- 
ested attention, Happy proceeded to render in his 
drawling tone, with occasional humorous com- 
ments thrown in, the Legend of Long Eidge. 


CHAPTER in 


THE TALE THAT HAPPY READ 

They had to go ten miles over a corduroy 
“ bridge,” ten miles stretching, jumping and 
slipping from floating puncheons ; ten miles 
under overlapping limbs, which forever excluded 
sunshine; ten miles parting crossed and tangled 
reeds; ten miles through interwoven briar trees, 
growths more like trees than bushes, ten miles 
over a swamp road untrodden by human foot- 
steps for over two and thirty years. 

Imagine the jungles of South Africa, the home 
of the lion and the mammoth reptile, and you 
may have some idea of the Hidden Path in the 
great Dismal Swamp of Virginia and North 
Carolina, which lies in four counties of these 
states with an area of six hundred square miles. 

The tales of tradition had led Seth Smith and 
Dick Holloway to seek this path on a November 
day of 1892 to discover Long Ridge hunting 
ground, ten miles from human habitation. With 
28 


The Tale That Happy Read 29 

hands pricked, clothing torn, and their bodies 
perspiring from every pore, after nine hours of 
toil and pain, Seth and Dick jumped from the 
last floating puncheon to solid land, and gained 
their first foothold on Long Eidge. 

The country folks had described it to them as 
an oasis in the great Swamp, like a beautiful 
island away out in the boundless ocean. They 
said it was oblong in shape, about two miles 
long by one-half of a mile wide — high ground 
with rich loam soil and solid clay subsoil. The 
grand old oaks, the magnificent elms, the out- 
spreading beeches, the shapely hollies, and here 
and there a lordly cypress overtowering all, gave 
Long Eidge natural grandeur surpassing the 
ancient parks of England. 

They had told them of the splendid game, of 
herds of deer that ranged its pastures, of surly 
bears that fed undisturbed upon acorns and ber- 
ries, of numberless squirrels that gave anima- 
tion to the trees in unaffrighted sports and of 
trees filled with singing birds. 

The tales of the old folks who lived on the 
borders of civilization around the great Swamp 
had not been overdrawn, for the revelation of 


30 


The Boy Scouts of the Air 


natural grandeur halted the adventurers in awe 
and wonder. The woods, still bright with 
autumn leaves, were revealed to their sight like 
a vision of loveliness and splendor. The wild 
animals were roving and playing through them, 
masters at home without thought of danger. It 
seemed almost sacrilegious to disturb such hap- 
piness, and with guns ashoulder, the boys stood 
mute, feasting their eyes upon the scene. 

“ By George, Seth, what a sight! ” This 
exclamation first broke the musing. 

“ Yes, Dick, it looks like cruelty to invade 
this peaceful retreat for birds and animals.’ ’ 

“ Who could have imagined anything on the 
face of the earth like this! ” 

Lost in their surroundings, they had not yet 
thought of pursuing their journey. 

“ It seems a pity, Dick, but let’s go on.” 

Without a thought of intruding the report of 
their firearms on the ears of the animals and 
the birds, so contented in this paradise of nature, 
slowly and quietly they moved forward as if 
afraid their presence might cause the vision of 
glory to vanish. Presently Dick exclaimed: 

“ Look! yonder’s a house, Seth! ” 


The Tale That Happy Read 


31 


And sure enough there appeared a log house, 
with other primitive buildings, in the midst of a 
corn field, seemingly about ten acres in extent. 

“ What can that mean, Dick? ” questioned 
Seth, excitedly. 

Was Long Ridge inhabited, or was this an old 
deserted cabin used in the long forgotten past 
by runaway negroes? No, this could not be, for 
there were the heavy ears of corn hanging from 
the mammoth stalks, that spoke of cultivation. 
So mysterious appeared this sight that both ad- 
vanced cautiously with fowling pieces ready 
cocked, the first hostile attitude since they had 
begun the journey in the early gray of the 
morning. 

As they reached the opening they found it 
enclosed with a bush fence. The cultivated corn 
with huge yellow pumpkins between the ridges, 
and the little cotton patch disclosed that Long 
Ridge was inhabited. Over the fence a narrow 
path led to the cabin and, as they neared it, 
Dick’s halloo sent little flaxen-haired children 
scampering away like a covey of birds from the 
dart of the hawk. But Dick and Seth ventured 
onward and called in a loud tone for the owner 


32 The Boy Scouts of the Air 

of the cabin, declaring themselves friends who 
merely wished permission to hunt. 

They stood within a few feet of the doorway 
when an old man with long silvery beard and 
white hair flowing over his stooping shoulders 
came tottering to the door. They explained their 
mission as quickly as possible. He scanned them 
for several moments before he uttered a word, 
appearing dazed with wonderment. At last he 
said: 

4 4 Strangers, why have you trespassed upon 
my retreat? ” 

Dick answered: 44 Sir, we had heard these 
were the finest hunting grounds in America, and, 
now that we find them inhabited, we wish to beg 
your permission to enjoy some sport.’ ’ 

44 1 am sorry you have come,” the old man 
replied, 44 1 am grieved for my good, simple 
home folks that the outside world should know 
of us. I hoped to live and die here in quiet, 
away from temptation for me and mine; but you 
evil ones have broken the charm — have crushed 
the dearest and fondest hopes of my life. You 
have torn away the curtain that hid us from 
the world and its wickedness.” 


The Tale That Happy Read 


33 


Seth replied: “ Good friend, we assure yon 
our intentions are far from injuring you and 
yours. We came here simply in pursuit of pleas- 
ure. No evil to any man ever entered our 
minds. ’ * 

“ For thirty years,'” the old man returned, 
“ I have lived here, hoping that my children 
might live without a single sin. Thirty-three 
years aback, when I was outside, I heard and 
saw the wicked deeds of men. I heard the clash 
of arms, when millions would rush together and 
murder till a million were maimed and dead. 
This was too much for me and I fled. Now, see, 
you may enter my cabin on these conditions: 
that you solemnly promise, first, never to dis- 
close the Hidden Path by which you reached 
Long Ridge; second, never to tell our names; 
third, never to discharge firearms within five 
miles of my home; fourth, that you will make 
another promise, which I will tell you of later.’ ’ 

6 ‘ We, Seth Smith and Dick Holloway, here 
and now most solemnly and truly promise all.” 

“ Now, gentlemen,” said the old man, “ come 
in and hear more of my story and enjoy my hos- 
pitality. This I have not forgotten, though 


34 


The Boy Scouts of the Air 


strangers have been long nnseen by me. ‘ Be not 
forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby 
some have entertained angels unawares/ ” 

They entered the log house, in which every 
article, except the loom and spinning wheel, was 
home handiwork. Neatness and order showed 
that a woman guided the household. The old 
man’s wife, a dignified, sweet-faced woman, bade 
them be seated before the great open fire, which 
blazed from a pile of logs, offering welcome and 
comfort. 

After all were seated the old man began: 

“ Now, my good friends, I will continue my 
story. As I said before I foresaw a terrible war 
and fled. How it ended, and what have been its 
results, I have never heard. Never, never, never 
shall they be revealed to me on earth. I have 
married happily and we had one son, who, with 
a young orphan girl, companion of my wife, 
made up the household at Gentle Hill farm in 
the winter of 1860. I told my wife how I dreaded 
to see and hear the bloody deeds of war and 
proposed my plan of escape. I had heard of the 
Dismal Swamp as the home of runaway slaves 
and I managed to learn from an old swamper 


The Tale That Happy Read 


35 


of this most secluded retreat of the vast and 
desolate area. Here I determined, with the con- 
sent of my family, to hide and shut from my 
sight the terrors that were coming. 

u We hitched our mule to a cart loaded with 
this loom and wheel, a plow, and a few other 
necessary utensils, and provisions to serve us 
for a time, and set out for Long Eidge. The old 
swamper had described it fully to me. The 
Hidden Path was not overgrown as you find it 
now but it was with great difficulty that we got 
our mule to drag our supply over the rough 
puncheons. Yet we finally succeeded in reaching 
this beautiful oasis, shut out from the world, 
and fixed our home here, living in the primitive 
manner you see, raising our corn from year to 
year for bread and trapping birds and animals 
for meat. Gunpowder has never been burnt on 
this ridge since inhabited by my family, and no 
human foot except yours has ever trod the Hid- 
den Path since that April day to this hour. 

“ In time Mark and Mary grew up to be man 
and woman. Their marriage vows were made in 
the words of the Holy Book, in the presence of 
God, Ellen and myself. It was a sacred, true and 


36 


The Boy Scouts of the Air 


pure union of hearts. Over yonder in that log 
cabin, near the great cypress, is their home now. 
Their children fled when you appeared. Deer, 
bears and other wild animals do not frighten 
them, but the glimpse of strange men made 
them flee as from a startling midnight ghost. 
Seven are the number of my grandchildren. Six 
are hoys, and one is a girl, the joy of her grand- 
father’s heart. Now, Ellen, let us give these 
strangers meat and drink and then depart for the 
home of our children.” 

Seth and Dick were hungry and enjoyed the 
supper of broiled birds and corn bread. At an 
early hour the old people bade them good night 
and left them. 

The next morning the horn from the other 
cabin aroused them at break of day and soon 
after the old man and his wife came over. She 
prepared the breakfast. After it was over the 
old man exacted the fourth promise, saying: 

“ My children, I have taken you in as stran- 
gers and given you all the comforts my home 
affords. I want you to leave us as you have 
found us and never be unfaithful to the promises 
you have given me.” 


The Tale That Happy Read 


37 


They gave the promise and, soon after, the old 
man escorted them to the beginning of the Hid- 
den Path, where, after saying farewell, they 
started on their way back to civilization. 

How this story came to be written though 
neither Seth nor Dick broke his vow is one 
of the mysteries, as is also the fate of the 
inhabitants of Long Ridge. 


CHAPTER IV 


THE MYSTERIOUS LAUNCH 

“ Some yarn! ” remarked Happy as a con- 
clusion to a series of remarks with which he had 
punctuated the reading of the story. 

“ I b’lieve there’s some foundation for that 
tale,” declared Dinks, “ and I’m going to ask 
Mr. Willis when we get up to Wallaceton. But, 
real or not, that guy was a slacker, and I haven’t 
got any use for quitters. One of these senti- 
mental buddies, too. That ought to suit you, 
Headlight? ” 

“ Why me? ” inquired Headlight, hotly. 

“ Why you? Why you? You know, why you. 
When she said she loved every freckle on your 
face. Gee! When you get back from this trip 
she’ll have a whole new flock of ’em to love — 
all over your geography.” 

“ Cut that out,” commanded the object of this 
witticism angrily. 

“ Cut w r hat out? The freckles? Life job,” 
laughed Dinks. 


The Mysterious Launch 


39 


“ Better let Headlight alone/ ’ cautioned 
Penny, “ or you’ll raise his Irish. We don’t 
want any mutiny among this crew. And you fel- 
lows are just jealous.” 

“Headlight knows I admire his taste,” af- 
firmed Dinks. “ Take it from me, she is a per- 
fect peach.” 

Headlight turned a still redder hue, but ap- 
peared uncertain just how to meet the last 
remark. 

“ Let’s drop this,” Happy hastened to sug- 
gest, “ and get back to that tale. If there’s such 
a place as Long Ridge, me for it, and bet your 
boots whether that old hermit is still living or 
not, I’m going to burn some gunpowder around 
there so that those bears can smell it.” 

“ Hermit! ” said Penny with a laugh. “ You 
don’t call a guy a hermit when he’s got a wife 
and a whole slew o’ kids, do you? But, say, 
what are those fauns that were nibbling the ber- 
ries? Were they the fellows with horns and tails 
you read about in the mythology? ” 

“ Jiminy Christmas, Penny,” exclaimed 
Happy, while the other two laughed, “ you 
haven’t got sense enough to bell a buzzard. A 


40 The Boy Scouts of the Air 

fawn is a young deer, sort o’ debutante, f-a-w-n, 
fawn.” 

“ Well, yon didn’t spell it when yon read if.” 

“ What sort o’ reading wonld it be if a fel- 
low had to spell all the words ont for nnts like 
yon I I generally read to an intelligent audi- 
ence. ’ ’ 

The discussion might have become heated if an 
exclamation from Dinks had not absorbed the 
attention of the party. 

“ Say, fellows, there’s another launch ahead.” 

The rest followed Dinks’ eyes and there, sure 
enough, about three hundred yards ahead was a 
launch somewhat larger than their own, putting 
out from an inlet bordered by marshland and 
making for midchannel with prow veering up 
the river. 

“ Wonder if that’s another camping party,” 
speculated Dinks. 

“ They’re not boys, that’s sure,” declared 
Happy, “ they’re men — three of ’em. And look 
at that guy with whiskers. He looks like a 
pirate — a regular Captain Kidd. ’ ’ 

“ Speed up, Headlight,” urged Dinks, “ and 
let’s overhaul ’em and get a good look. 


The Mysterious Launch 


41 


Headlight accordingly urged the boat to 
greater speed and, in a few moments, it was 
evident to the boys that they were gaining on 
the other craft, now moving straight up the 
channel. The men had their backs turned in ap- 
parent unconsciousness of the pursuit. But when 
the whistle of the boys’ launch emitted a shrill 
blast the three heads turned instantly and, from 
the men’s gestures, it was apparent that the 
greeting had been received with small satisfac- 
tion. 

“ Gosh, Headlight! ” exclaimed Dinks, “ what 
did you do that for? ” 

“ Oh, I just touched it and it went off,” apolo- 
gized Headlight. “ I swear I didn’t mean to 
do it.” 

“ You’re a swell detective,” drawled Happy, 
“ letting your game know you are on the trail. 
Some sleuth! ” 

“ But we haven’t got any reason to think 
that — ’ ’ 

“ We haven’t? ” interrupted Dinks. “ Look, 
will you? If we hadn’t, we have now.” 

While two of the men kept their eyes fixed on 
the boys and were evidently discussing them in 


42 


The Boy Scouts of the Air 


an animated way, the other busied himself with 
the engine, with the result that his boat began to 
skim the waters with increased speed/ ’ 

“ Don’t you see they are trying to leave us be- 
hind? ” continued Dinks excitedly. “ Dam you 
for making that noise. We might have gotten 
right up on ’em. S ’pose you thought they would 
whistle back and give us their company on the 
trip. You can tell from this distance they are 
roughnecks. ’ ’ 

“ Maybe that slacker’s in there,” suggested 
Penny. “ I bet he’s the one with the raincoat 
and slouch hat pulled down over his face.” 

“ By Jiminy! Penny,” said Dinks, “ I b’lieve 
you struck the nail. Squeeze the juice, Head- 
light, and give us full speed.” 

“ I’ve got her going fast as she will stand,” 
returned the latter. “ Those fellows have got a 
bigger engine than the Carrie Call . They are 
gaining every jump.” 

It was clear that the strangers had some motive 
for not wishing to be overtaken. The first 
moments of the chase were exciting, but it was 
soon evident that unless some accident happened 
to the others’ engine, the boys would be left 


The Mysterious Launch 


43 


hopelessly behind. Then there was the danger of 
overtaxing their own machinery and getting in 
an unpleasant plight. Before long the strange 
craft, a good half mile ahead, was lost to sight 
at a turn in the waterway. 

“ Slow up, Headlight,” finally suggested 
Penny. “ You see the jig’s up. At least on the 
water. But how about getting an auto when we 
reach the locks and running them down? ” 

‘ ‘ You’re talking through your sombrero, 
Penny,” said Happy. “ What right have we got 
to run down people we don’t know anything 
about? Maybe they are just some guys who 
don’t want any company.” 

“ You can’t persuade me they ain’t crooks,” 
said Dinks with positiveness, “ and I believe as 
sure as I’m sitting here that slacker’s in the 
bunch.” 

“ We’ll find out. Just keep your hair on,” 
said Headlight as if to make up for his own 
error. “ The locks will hold ’em up; we are 
bound to catch them there. They can’t get 
through in less than fifteen minutes if those 
locks don’t work faster than some others I’ve 


seen. 


44 


The Boy Scouts of the Air 


44 That’s the dope,” assented Happy. “I 
forgot about the locks at the place where the 
canal starts. And look at the water. We must 
be pretty close to it. I bet it’s right around 
the bend.” 

Happy’s keen eye had noted that the greener 
waters of the lower Branch were now giving 
place to a darker tint that showed the effect of 
its mingling with the wine-colored fresh water of 
the juniper swamps. The other boys followed 
Happy’s observation with keen satisfaction. 

“ Let her clip a little longer then, Headlight,” 
shouted Dinks. “ Penny’s right. We’ll corner 
’em at the locks.” 

In a few moments their boat had rounded' the 
projecting tongue of rush-covered marsh and all 
raised a shout as their goal appeared in view 
about a quarter of mile ahead. 

“ How we’ve got ’em,” cried Happy. “ Push 
her, Headlight. See the gates are open and 
there’s the launch just creeping in.” 

The launch was indeed just disappearing from 
view into the basin of the locks and the boys 
caught a fleeting glance of the face of the man 
at the helm turned in their direction. 


The Mysterious Launch 


45 


“ ’Attaboy! ” urged one and all in the pur- 
suer, but in a few moments there was a cry of 
disappointment as the gates were seen to be 
slowly moving back in place. 

“ Dang it all! ” came from Happy. “ It’s 
shut. We’ll be too late. Now’s the time to grin, 
fellows. They’ve beat us.” 

The boys composed themselves as best they 
could during the twelve or fifteen minutes it took 
them before, approaching incautiously near, they 
came under the shadow of the lock. All together 
shouted to the lockkeeper, but no answer was 
granted. They shouted several times more with 
no result. From where their boat floated, they 
were unable to see what was passing on the locks 
overhead. 

“ Jump out, one of you fellows,” suggested 
Headlight, “ and run up the bank and make that 
fellow get busy.” 

This was more readily said than done. For on 
either hand the bank was covered with rushes 
that would give but treacherous footing. Pre- 
cious time would have been lost extricating one’s 
self from this morass and to secure a safe land- 
ing place would have necessitated their run- 


46 The Boy Scouts of the Air 

ning the launch along the shore for at least a 
quarter of a mile. 

Clearly they must depend on the good will of 
the lockkeeper. They began to call in a more 
pleading tone until, after several minutes, a 
man’s form stood above them on the edge of the 
stone pier. 

“ What are you kids raising such a cater- 
waulin’ about! ” he gruffly demanded. 

“We want to get through the locks,” said 
Dinks in his most imposing bass tone, “ and to 
get through quick.” 

“ That’s not the way we do business here,” 
shot back the lockman. “ You don’t think I’m 
going to open the locks and let all this water out 
for small potatoes like you kids. Wait till them 
lighters you see yonder come up and you kin 
get accommodated at their tail.” 

The boys’ glances followed the man’s finger, 
and espied two lighters being propelled with 
provoking leisureliness in the direction of the 
locks. At the rate they were moving fifteen 
minutes would be required for their arrival at 
the locks. 

“ But we can’t wait for those snails,” insisted 


The Mysterious Launch 


47 


Dinks. “We’re in a great hurry. Every sec- 
ond’s valuable.” 

4 4 I reckon so,” answered the surly lockkeeper 
sarcastically. “ Looks val’able with all that 
campin’ stuff in there. Yes, I reckon yo’ time is 
precious val’able.” 

* ‘ But you just let in another launch by itself, ’ ’ 
put in Headlight. “ You did it for them, didn’t 
you? ” 

“ S ’posin’ I did,” returned the surly individ- 
ual, “ an’ s ’posin’ I didn’t. That’s my business.” 

“ Happen to know who were in the boat! ” 
persisted Dinks. 

“ S ’posin’ I did an’ s ’posin’ I didn’t,” again 
parried the lockkeeper. “ I don’t know as that’s 
any business o’ yourn.” 

And discharging himself of a flood of tobacco 
juice, he drew from his .pocket a quid, took a 
fresh “ chaw,” gave the boys a contemptuous 
glance and disappeared from sight. 

< 6 Let ’s get out and lick that sucker, ’ ’ suggested 
Headlight. “ I can do it by myself.” 

“ Yes, you could!” said Penny. “ Even if 
all us tackled him, we’d just get locked up in 
the county jail and then what would happen to 


CHAPTER V 


INTO THE WILDEKNESS 

“ Seems funny to be going up bill to a swamp, 
doesn’t it? ” said Penny, after they bad exhausted 
a discussion of the possibilities of overtaking the 
other launch at Deep Creek and were chugging 
along at a moderate rate amid scenes of no 
particular interest. 

“ It sure does,” conceded Dinks, and then pro- 
ceeded with something of a schoolmaster air: 
“ But Buck says the Lake is on a sort of ridge 
that has been lifted out of the sea before you 
fellows were born,” and added laughingly, 
“ some millions of years ago. It’s about twenty- 
five feet above sea level, so we’ve got to have 
two more lifts before we get there, one at Deep 
Creek and one at a place called Wallaceton where 
we have to stop and see Buck’s friend, Mr. 
Willis, and — ” 

Dinks paused abruptly as if he had been on 
the point of betraying an important secret. 


Into the Wilderness 


51 


“ And what? ” insisted Happy eagerly. 

“ I meant i but,’ ” corrected Dinks with a 
wink. “ I started to give yon fellows some more 
information I got from Back. The Swamp lies 
on a bed of peat.” 

“ Bed of what? 99 interrupted Happy, 
“ Pete? ” 

“ Peat, p-e-a-t, nut,” explained Dinks. “ You 
know the stuff the Irish keep themselves warm 
with. Vegetable stuff that got buried under lime 
and sand and such and then was pressed tight 
but didn’t get squeezed tight enough for coal. 
It’s coal in the making. You know the earth 
was pretty hot in the carboniferous period.” 

‘ ‘ Great balls o ’ fire ! 9 9 exclaimed the admiring 
Penny, “ how can you remember words like that, 
Dinks? 99 

“ Oh, I was just born that way',” explained 
Dinks with mock solemnity. “ I can’t help it. 
But quit interrupting and let me tell you a few 
more things I’ve got stored up. There’s most 
every sort of tree in the world in that Swamp 
and they go together in families. When you find 
black gum, then you can look for water gum, and 
red maple and rattan and yellow jessamine, an(f 


CHAPTER V 


INTO THE WILDERNESS 

“ Seems funny to be going up bill to a swamp, 
doesn’t it? ” said Penny, after they had exhausted 
a discussion of the possibilities of overtaking the 
other launch at Deep Creek and were chugging 
along at a moderate rate amid scenes of no 
particular interest. 

“ It sure does,” conceded Dinks, and then pro- 
ceeded with something of a schoolmaster air: 
“ But Buck says the Lake is on a sort of ridge 
that has been lifted out of the sea before you 
fellows were born,” and added laughingly, 
“ some millions of years ago. It’s about twenty- 
five feet above sea level, so we’ve got to have 
two more lifts before we get there, one at Deep 
Creek and one at a place called Wallaceton where 
we have to stop and see Buck’s friend, Mr. 
Willis, and — ” 

Dinks paused abruptly as if he had been on 
the point of betraying an important secret. 

50 


Into the Wilderness 


51 


44 And what? ” insisted Happy eagerly. 

44 I meant 4 but,’ ” corrected Dinks with a 
wink. 44 I started to give you fellows some more 
information I got from Buck. The Swamp lies 
on a bed of peat.” 

44 Bed of what? ” interrupted Happy, 
44 Pete? ” 

44 Peat, p-e-a-t, nut,” explained Dinks. 44 You 
know the stuff the Irish keep themselves warm 
with. Vegetable stuff that got buried under lime 
and sand and such and then was pressed tight 
but didn’t get squeezed tight enough for coal. 
It’s coal in the making. You know the earth 
was pretty hot in the carboniferous period.” 

4 4 Great balls o ’ fire ! * ’ exclaimed the admiring 
Penny, 44 how can you remember words like that, 
Dinks? ” 

44 Oh, I was just born that way',” explained 
Dinks with mock solemnity. 44 I can’t help it. 
But quit interrupting and let me tell you a few 
more things I’ve got stored up. There’s most 
every sort of tree in the world in that Swamp 
and they go together in families. When you find 
black gum, then you can look for water gum, and 
red maple and rattan and yellow jessamine, ancf 


52 


The Boy Scouts of the Air 


when you find juniper, you are sure to run across 
white cedar and shrubs and pine and cane and 
some bald cypress, whatever that is. And the 
funny thing about the juniper is, it’s got knees . ’ 9 

“ Knees! ” exclaimed Happy. “ I knew trees 
had roots and branches, and lightwood knots had 
eyes and corn had ears, but blessed if I ever 
heard of trees having knees. Come oft.” 

“ Cut out your funny stuff! ” said Dinks. 
“The knees come up from the roots and stick 
out of the water. I’ve seen pictures of them. 
They used to use them in shipbuilding. ’ 9 ' 

“I’m learning things every minute,” declared 
Headlight. “ But let’s feed.” 

“ We get up to Wallaceton in a couple of 
hours, and' Mr. Willis expects us to lunch,” 
objected Happy. 

“ That’s all right,” returned Headlight. “ It’s 
my insides calling for food, not yours. You 
needn’t join unless you want to.” 

But when eggs and sandwiches were produced, 
Happy apparently developed an appetite, for 
an four boys fell to heartily and when they 
reached Deep Creek were well fortified for the 
ten miles ahead of them. 


Into the Wilderness 


53 


At the second locks they assumed an air of 
indifference when Dinks asked the good-natured 
lockkeeper if any launches had been through that 
day. 

“ Yep, one just ahead of you. Came in ’bout 
half an hour ago.” 

“ Weren’t any boys in it? ” pressed Dinks. 

“ Nary a boy. Jes* two men.” 

“ Two! ” echoed Dinks in undisguised sur- 
prise, which was shared by his companions. 
“ Didn’t happen to know them, did you? ” 

“ Never seen ’em befo\ One had on a rain- 
coat and the other was a big man with whiskers. 
Reckon they was goin* after bear. Looked like 
they had guns along, and a lot of stuff packed in 
the boat same as you have.” 

Dinks did not pursue his questions further, but 
when the boat was well beyond the locks and had 
left behind the last scattering houses of the 
straggling village of Deep Creek, the four began 
to discuss the disappearance of one of the crew 
of the mysterious launch. The conclusion 
reached was that the slacker had been landed 
below the village, to make his way into the 
recesses of the Swamp by some other route while 


54 


The Boy Scouts of the Air 


his companions pushed on, in order to deposit 
supplies at a convenient spot where he might 
get them later without arousing suspicion. 

This question settled to their satisfaction, the 
lads found time to inspect their surroundings 
with more interest. On the left, or cultivated 
side of the canal, stretched vast fields of young 
corn and potatoes springing from a coal-black, 
loamy soil. Along the road that skirted the dike 
cabins were sprinkled here and there, and at 
considerable intervals appeared country houses 
of some pretensions, approached through avenues 
of poplars, elms and cedars. The road itself was 
enlivened by an occasional buggy or wagon, or by 
negro-driven mules, towing lighters laden with 
wood or with barrels of produce. The right 
bank, however, was a jungle, showing what the 
civilized side must have looked like two hundred 
years before. Great, dark, weird forests of juni- 
per, cypress and gum rose in the background 
amid tangled undergrowth that seemed as dense 
and difficult to penetrate as the jungles of the 
Amazon. Cane brakes lined the banks and, on 
the surface of the water-filled but abandoned 
ditches that extended from the main waterway, 


Into the Wilderness 


55 


foated white and yellow water lilies with great 
spreading leaves amid other water plants and 
patches of greenish scnm. 

The boys drank in these scenes with a feelirt^ 
of wonder not unaccompanied with awe. They 
had seen many other woods, hut none such as 
these. 

“ How the mischief could a fellow hunt a 
slacker or anybody else in a wilderness like 
that! ” said Penny. 

“ I reckon we can follow where anybody else 
leads the way,” commented Dinks. 

“ Don’t s’pose it looks like this all around the 
Lake? ” questioned Penny again. 

“ Heap worse than this,” declared Dinks, 
“ but there’s a good place to camp on, or Buck 
wouldn’t have told us to go there. We can just 
look at the wild part.” 

“ I started to ask how any airplane could do 
anything up here,” remarked Happy, “ but I 
decided not to say it.” 

For once he caught Dinks off his guard, for 
before he realized it he had answered. 

“ You don’t reckon Mr. Willis lives in a jungle 
like this? Look on the other side there, and you 


56 The Boy Scouts of the Air 

can get some idea. Buck says he's got a fine 
field for a plane to land in or to practice. Bnt 
doggone your skin,” he said abruptly, catching 
himself in his slip, “ you came near making me 
let something out. Let’s talk about forestry and 
scouting . 9 9 

So, in a deep discussion of trees and wood- 
craft, they filled in the time till the third and last 
of the locks rose to sight and announced Wai- 
laceton. 


CHAPTER VI 


NEAR THE HEART OF THE MYSTERY 

Wallaceton is not so much a town as a state 
of mind. There are two dwellings, a country 
store and postoffice combined, and a sawmill in 
the remote suburbs on the far side of the canal. 
But to Mr. Willis, who called it home and occu- 
pied the larger of the two dwellings, it had a 
citified air, especially when an auto stood in 
front of the postoffice. Then, too, when the 
Canal steamboat that made regular trips every 
other day was being sent through the locks, the 
passengers, disembarking to buy cakes, pickles 
and other delicacies, would give the “ town ” a 
busy, metropolitan air and bring great cheer to 
the heart of the storekeeper. 

When the boys’ boat reached the lower gates 
of the locks there stood Fred Willis, bald-headed 
and genial, the leading citizen of Wallaceton and 
owner of the broad acres round about. 

“ Well, well, boys,” he called in his thunder- 
57 


58 The Boy Scouts of the Air 

ous tones, “ so here you are. Walke phoned me 
on long distance about when to expect you, but 
you took a little longer than I thought you 
would, and about half an hour ago I mistook 
another launch for you until I saw what it had 
in it. Here, close in to the bank and jump out. 
Pete,” he called to a negro boy standing near, 
“ jump in there when the young gentlemen get 
out, see her through the locks and chain her on 
the other side. You needn’t worry. Pete knows 
a launch as well as the man who made her. Come 
on now, Watts, introduce me to your friends.” 

Mr. Willis spoke all in a breath, and it was 
only at this point that Dinks, who had met their 
host previously in Norfolk, could introduce his 
chums. 

“ Now, lads,” said their host, after the four 
had jumped ashore, 4 4 we will go up and see what 
Mrs. W. can give a hungry squad. Hope you 
fellows are hungry. Mrs. W. don’t like to see 
any nibbling on her fare.” 

The boys, forgetting their luncheon en route, 
declared they were hungry as bears, for digestion 
at sixteen goes on with surprising speed, espe- 
cially when one is out on an adventure. 


Near the Heart of the Mystery 59 

“ Walke says he ’ll be up to-morrow, and then 
we’ll see what we’ll see,” said Mr. Willis as they 
went on to the house that stood back several 
hundred feet from the bank. “ Won’t we, 
Dinks? ” he added, winking at this initiated 
member of the party. 

“ You bet,” assented the latter. 

“ And they’ll be sprouting wings soon,” 
declared the host. 

The curiosity of the three not in the secret 
was much heightened by these and other re- 
marks of a like nature, as well as by the sight 
of a queer-shaped, whitewashed building with 
huge doors that stood in a field back of the 
dwelling house, and that had something of the 
appearance of a barn, but clearly was not one. 

In order to suppress his curiosity about the 
one mystery, Happy hastened to bring up 
another. 

“ You said a launch came through a little 
ahead of us, Mr. Willis? ” 

“Yes! with two fellows in it. One of ’em 
I’ve seen on the streets of Norfolk before, but 
don’t know his name, and neither of ’em seemed 
to be sociable on this trip, so I let ’em by with- 


60 The Boy Scouts of the Air 

out my blessing. Reckon they are going up 
looking forebear.” 

Arrival at the door of “ Willis Lodge ” gave 
no opportunity for further questions. 

The house was a many-roomed rambling affair, 
whose need of a new coat of paint was a symptom 
of the happy-go-lucky temperament of the in- 
mates. Within, hospitality abounded. Savory 
hams of the cure known as Smithfield, game in 
season, and all sorts of other dainties were pre- 
pared in the best Virginia style by Dinaii, the 
cook, served by Susanna, the maid, and eaten 
by the boys with the greatest gusto and relish. 

Dickens ’ Mr. Pickwick would have felt in- 
stantly at home amid these genial surroundings, 
and boys who could handle knife and fork with 
all the enthusiasm of hungry sixteen required no 
urging from the genial Mr. Willis and his hos- 
pitable wife. 

“ My, I do like to sec boys eat,” he declared 
after his guests were well engaged and he him- 
self was seconding them most nobly. “ I like it, 
especially when fellows are your age and you 
can see ’em sprout and spread after every meal . 7 7 

“ Eh! Lawd! ain’t it de truf ! 77 approved 


Near the Heart of the Mystery 61 

Susanna, beaming from behind the chairs as she 
passed jam with great enthusiasm. 

A reproving glance from the mistress of the 
house had little effect on the privileged black. 
She bounced into the conversation whenever she 
thought occasion required and nothing could 
stop her. 

“ Seem like a pity fer to feed folks dem good 
vittles, and den send ’em up in one o’ dem air 
chariots fer to break dey necks,” continued the 
maid. 

This last remark was too much for Mr. Willis’ 
good humor, and he commanded her to hold her 
tongue in a tone that had its effect. 

“ Well, boys,” he said, to change the trend of 
the lads’ thoughts, “ though I don’t think much 
of that camping-on-the-lake idea, Walke is keen 
for it, so I suppose it’s up to you to do it. You’ll 
find near the mouth of the Ditch that leads into 
the Lake a piece of ground that’s been well 
drained and is suitable for camping this time of 
the year. Old Uncle Abe, a darky who belonged 
to my father, has a patch of ground there and 
incidentally picks up a little money showing 
strangers around the Lake. He’ll tell you all 


62 The Boy Scouts of the Air 

about bears and every sort o’ 1 critter,’ and 
help you any way be can. If Walke comes up 
to-morrow, I’ll send you word by the boy in my 
launch and you can come down right away and 
we’ll start things going. Then, too, I want to 
show you a flock of fine children. They are off 
to-day on a picnic, all except the baby.” 

When the family subject seemed near ex- 
hausted, Happy made bold to ask : 

“ Mr. Willis, did you ever hear of a place in 
the Swamp called Long Ridge? ” 

“ Heard of it, yes,” returned the host readily, 
“ and I believe there is such a place, but I never 
found anybody that had been there himself. 
Each one tells you he knew somebody else who 
had seen it. But how in heaven’s name did you 
ever hear of it? ” 

Happy, ably assisted by Dinks, told of the 
story they had read. “ Oh, I remember reading 
that yarn,” said the host with a laugh. “ The 
only foundation for it that I know of is that 
some old folks hereabout claim that an old fellow 
and his wife and one son who wanted to keep out 
of the Confederate army hid off in the Swamp all 
during the war. The parents died, and the son 


Near the Heart of the Mystery 63 

cleared out after the war, for the people made it 
too hot for him around here. That’s the last 
that was ever heard of him , but not so long ago 
there were two brothers living near Ballyhack 
who were thought to be sons of the slacker.' One 
of them got into some trouble and disappeared, 
and the other, they say, is not much to boast of. 
That’s all I know.” 

“ But you don’t think there was any such gar- 
den spot as the yarn tells about, and the senti- 
mental stuff is just bull? ” asked Dinks. 

“ Bull is right,” returned the host. “ All that 
came out of the author’s imagination. I laugh 
every time I think of the deer and bears frisking 
around in that Happy Hunting Ground.” 

The meal was long over and the sun declining 
before the hospitable host would let the boys 
start on the last leg of their journey. Dinks, 
however, insisted that the start must be made in 
time to get their camp fixed up before nightfall, 
and the party made ready to embark. 

“ I hate to think of you boys spending the 
night in that lonesome place,” declared the host, 
“ but, as I said, I reckon Walke wanted to test 
your nerve. He thinks you scouts mustn’t be 


64 


The Boy Scouts of the Air 


afraid of anything. Besides, you’ve got a treat 
before yon when you see that magnificent lake on 
a moonlight night such as this is going to he. 
By the way, I wonder if it would be safe for me 
to lend you my canoe. I don ’t mean I am anxious 
for the shell, but I’m afraid you might spill 
yourselves. I don’t want any of you to be 
drowned.” 

The offer was greeted with great enthusiasm, 
and the uneasiness of Mr. Willis was completely 
scouted. To the hoys, it seemed as ridiculous as 
expressing fear that a fish could not swim. Then 
a heated debate arose as to who should paddle 
up in the shell, for none would hear to towing it 
behind the launch. Straws were drawn and the 
chosen two were Happy and Penny. It was un- 
derstood that, as the launch could scarcely be 
held back for the slower craft, it was to wait for 
the latter at the mouth of the “ Ditch.” Full 
directions as to the whereabouts of the latter 
were given. 

From the shore Mr. Willis bade the boys fare- 
well with more mysterious hints about what was 
to happen on the morrow. Then off started the 
launch, with rather rueful glances from Dinks 


Near the Heart of the Mystery 65 

and Headlight upon the two lucky fellows who 
had taken their seats in the canoe. 

“ You haven’t got a glass arm, have you? ” 
asked Happy as Penny showed more awkward- 
ness with the paddle than he did himself. “ Put 
some axle grease in your pull. This is no rest 
cure. ’ 9 

The one reproved muttered a bit, but soon fell 
in with his companion’s stroke and the two be- 
gan to experience the joy of a mellow afternoon 
on the smooth dark waters, now shadowed by 
the tall trees and the cane brakes on their right. 
The protecting mound on the left of the canal 
bank was gay with a profusion of wild roses. 
Here and there a fish sent an eddy over the 
smooth surface of the water. A bird of gay 
plumage flashed along the bank, appearing and 
disappearing so quickly that they hardly realized 
they had seen it. The mystic influence of the 
scene began to arouse Happy’s imagination. 

“ Look here, Penny,” he said after a long 
silence, “ are you game? ” 

“ Sure I’m game,” asserted Penny with extra 
emphasis as he recalled Dinks ’ rather mild 
opinion in that line. 


66 The Boy Scouts of the Air 

“ Well, what I’m going to suggest requires 
extra gameness. Are you extra game? ” 

“ Extra game is my middle name,” declared 
Penny dauntlessly. 

“ Well, I’m going to find that path to Long 
Bidge. You can’t tell me the fellows in that 
launch haven’t gone in the Lake and we can take 
this shell and scout around and when we find 
their boat that will give us the clue to the path 
and there must he some sort of markings to show 
the way. Believe me! I’m going to get there. 
Will you join me? ” 

“ But how about the other fellows? ” objected 
Penny, rather overwhelmed by the proposition. 

“ You see,” explained Happy, “ Buck is going 
to spring some airplane gag on us to-morrow, 
and Dinks and Headlight are going to run of £ 
their nuts over the scheme, and you and I, who 
don’t know B from bull’s foot about mechanics, 
we’ll be clean out of it. We’ve got to do some- 
thing daring, too. Of course, we might cop a 
bear but what’s that to landing a slacker and 
discovering a mysterious island in the Swamp? ” 

“ But s’pose we get lost? ” 

“ Great day! Penny, if you don’t stop 


Near the Heart of the Mystery 67 

s ’posin’ you won’t get anywhere. S’pose ex- 
plorers had s ’posed, we’d be living in the Old 
Country still. You’ve got to do things and 
think afterwards. Anyhow, we can tell Dinks 
and Headlight, if we don’t get back in a certain 
time, to tell Buck to scout around in his airplane 
and we can signal to him, can’t we? ” 

“ But how do you know that launch went into 
the Lake? It might have kept right up the 
Canal,” objected Penny. 

“ I know it, because I’ve got the detective 
instinct. We know those crooks wanted to get 
away somewhere and they say there’s a town 
further up the Canal about six miles. You know 
they’re not making for that. They’re going 
somewhere along that wild Lake.” 

“ I don’t believe they are in the Lake.” 

“ Believe what you please but you’ll soon know 
what I say is so. That Uncle Abe, up there, can 
tell us whether they came in or not.” 

Happy continued his argument with such suc- 
cess that Penny was won over to his scheme, and 
in hatching out their plans they failed to realize 
how slowly they were paddling. They were 
right up on the entrance to the Ditch before 


68 The Boy Scouts of the Air 

they discovered the launch half concealed by the 
overhanging hushes. 

“ What do you think you are,” yelled Dinks, 
1 6 Virginia creepers? If you two can’t paddle 
any faster than that, leave that shell next time to 
men who can.” 

After the impatient lads were partly appeased, 
the launch started to penetrate the dim recesses 
of the branch-vaulted waterway. Progress ^as 
necessarily slow, for the Ditch was uncomfort- 
ably narrow and at times the bushes and lower 
branches of the trees brushed their faces un- 
comfortably. But the distance to traverse was 
only a few hundred yards and suddenly the 
launch, followed at a short distance by the canoe, 
shot from under the last boughs and, as a mar- 
velous scene burst upon the sight of the occu- 
pants, a great shout of wonder and admiration 
arose from every throat. 


CHAPTER VH 


UNCLE ABE ENTEBTAINS 

The scene that greeted the boys’ eyes as their 
boats glided onto the open waters of Lake 
Drummond was well calculated to inspire them 
with awe and wonder. Before them spread a 
vast expanse, glittering beneath the rays of the 
fast declining sun, while on either hand weird 
forests reflected in the dark and tranquil waters 
presented strange forms of trees, gnarled and 
distorted into the most fantastic shapes. 

“ Some view! ” exclaimed Dinks to his com- 
panion in the launch. 

“ Sort o’ gives me the creeps, though,” said 
Headlight. “ I’d like to turn the Atlantic into 
this pond and get it jazzed up a little. Looks 
too durned peaceful for me. Say, look at those 
funny things sticking out of the water! ” 

“ Those are juniper knees, the things I told 
you about,” explained Dinks. 

“ And Gosh! those dead trees coming right up 
69 


70 The Boy Scouts of the Air 

out of the water sure look sad. Those dead ones 
with the moss look like skeletons twisted around 
every sort of way. Know what it reminds me 
of? Pictures in that book at home I showed 
you, you remember — those pictures of hell, in 
that book by that fellow Dant.” 

“ Great Gee, Headlight, you are ignorant. 
You mean Dante.” 

“ Whatever you choose to call him, he must 
have made a trip up here. Eh, Penny? ” added 
Headlight calling out in the direction of the 
canoe. “ No place for scarecats, is it? If you 
saw anything move in those reeds there, you’d 
drop dead.” 

“ Not till I saw you dead first,” countered 
Penny. 

“ All right, bearcat, wait and see,” returned 
Headlight. 

‘ 4 Cut out the kidding, ’ 9 called Happy. i i What 
I want to know is, where is that Monticello 
Hotel where we hang out? Looks like Buck’s put 
up some sort of a game on us. Won’t be any 
joke for somebody if he has.” 

“ He said on the left hand, nut,” explained 
Dinks. “ I’ve got it. See? ” 


Uncle Abe Entertains 


71 


The others’ eyes followed the finger pointing 
to a spot about a quarter of a mile from where 
they then were.” 

“ Good eye! ” assented Headlight. “ Right 
you are. There’s a break in the woods and see 
there’s a corner of a cabin. Let’s beat it.” 

As the boys approached their goal, they dis- 
covered rising from the swampy shore a knoll of 
some three or four feet in height and, as far as 
they could judge, a couple of acres in area. 
But few trees of the primeval forest remained 
and a cultivated patch beside the cabin pro- 
claimed Uncle Abe’s feeble efforts at farming. 
A rough wharf of logs and several stakes driven 
into the shallow water afforded a mooring and 
landing place. 

“ Well, here’s our happy home,” remarked 
Dinks as he jumped ashore, closely followed by 
the other boys. “ But 'where’s the guy who runs 
this cheerful ranch? ” 

“ I hear his orchestra,” put in Happy, as the 
evening croaking of innumerable bullfrogs was 
borne upon their ears. 

“ You’ll have to drown that with your banjo, 
Hap, or we’ll go off our nut,” asserted Penny. 


72 


The Boy Scouts of the Air 


“ Oh, we’ll raise such a racket after we get 
fixed we’ll paralyze that chorus for a week,” 
returned Happy. “ But what I want to know is 
where that nigger is. Oh, Uncle Abe! ” 

The others joined in the yells, and the forests 
around repeated innumerable cries of “ Oh, 
Uncle Abe ! ” 

In a few moments the cabin door opened and 
a grizzled woolly head was thrust out to be 
shortly followed by a sturdy, though bent, body. 

“ What you children raising all that racket 
for? ” questioned the old man. “ I knowed you 
was cornin’. I heard you cornin’ thu de Ditch. 
Ain’t nothin’ never come thu dat Ditch douten I 
hears it. I knowed you was cornin’ an’ I was 
takin’ a little nap while you was gittin’ hyuh. 
I kin stan’ up in de corner an’ take a sweet little 
nap mos’ any time.” 

The lads had reached the cabin door as the old 
man continued: “ I reckon you’se dem boys Mr. 
Willis told me ’bout what was cornin’ up hyuh 
campin’. You sho’ is got a lonesome place. 
Ain’t nothin’ goin’ to crowd you, ’sep’n maybe 
a snake might drap in to a$k how you was gittin ’ 
on.” 


Uncle Abe Entertains 73 

“ Think they’ll bother us? ” asked Penny 
anxiously. 

“ I ain’t sayin’ dey won’t,’’ answered the old 
man, “ and dey don’t send no messenger ahead 
to tell you dey’s cornin’, but ef you don’t pester 
dem, dey ain’t studyin’ ’bout messin’ wid you,” 

“ How ’bout bears? ” Dinks questioned 
eagerly. “ Any chance of our getting a crack at 
one? ” 

“ I ain’t see no b’ar now fo’ ’bout three 
months,” answered the negro. “ Last one come 
aroun’ put his paw in one o’ my traps, an’ he 
yell an’ carry on so scand’lous, seem like all de 
res’ o’ his fambly done lost der taste fer my 
roastin’ years o’ cawn and sich like.” 

“ S’pose one will turn up while we’re sleep? ” 
speculated Penny. 

“ Dey might,” agreed the old man, “ dey 
might come ’round sniffin’ fer new meat, seein’ 
as you’se so young and tender.” 

Then seeing the look of genuine alarm that 
came over Penny’s face and the not altogether 
calm expressions of the others, he grinned and 
added: “ I was jes’ habin’ little fun. Dey ain’t 
no b’ar gwine ’sturb you, sence I’ll let you know 


74 


The Boy Scouts of the Air 


ef one come in half a mile o’ hyuh. I kin smell 
’em in my sleep. My nose is jes’ natchelly sot 
for b’ar.” 

“ Let us know soon as you sniff one,” said 
Dinks half credulously, and really eager to come 
to a passage of arms with a bear. He preferred 
a gun on his side, however. 

“ Don’t you worry. You gwine know it ef a 
b ’ar come in a mile o ’ dis plantation, ’ ’ answered 
Uncle Abe. 

“ We are just bound to get a bear hide,” de- 
clared Headlight. “ Couldn’t show our faces 
back home without one.” 

“ You jus’ gwine git one,” declared the old 
man with a sly look, “ or my name ain’t Ab’aham 
Lamentations o’ Jeremiah Jones.” 

The boys all laughed, but the old man was 
completely unconscious that the cause of their 
mirth was the eccentric Biblical name. 

“ Say, Uncle Abe,” began Happy, assuming 
a serious look once more, “ did you happen to 
see a launch come in ahead of us to-day! ” 

The rest of the boys gave interested atten- 
tion. 

“ Lanch! One o’ dem things like you came 


Unde Abe Entertains 


75 


in? Yose is de fustes’ I seen dis day, sho\ I 
seen one ’bout three weeks ago.” 

“ Sure you haven’t seen one to-day? ” in- 
sisted Penny. 

“ Co’se I’se sho’. Ain’t nothin’ bigger’n a 
skeeter come thu dat Ditch douten I knows it.” 

The lads were clearly disappointed, but pro- 
ceeded to question the negro as to the best place 
for their camp. A high, dry and treeless spot 
well back from the water was decided on, and in 
a short time hatchets were busy trimming tree 
limbs to the regulation size for constructing their 
rustic cots. Blankets spread over layers of pine 
branches and tent-flies stretched between poles 
to keep of: sun and rain made their sleeping 
quarters complete. 

Finally Penny produced and unrolled a mys- 
terious bundle. 

“ What’s that, Penny? ” inquired Happy. 

Headlight, already familiar with its contents, 
grinned. 

The wrapping removed displayed a roll of 
some yards of wire mesh. 

“ Snake medicine,” explained Penny. 

“ Snake medicine! ” echoed Happy. 


76 


The Boy Scouts of the Air 


“ Sure! I’ve got enough of this stuff to make 
a barricade around our sleeping place. If they’re 
small enough to crawl through they won’t he big 
enough to do us any harm, and if any big ones 
try to climb over, they’ll get what’s coming to 
’em.” 

“ I swear, Penny,” declared Happy, “ you’re 
a regular old woman. You ought to go camp- 
ing in your back parlor. That’s about your 
size.” 

Despite jeers all aided in putting the wire in 
place. 

“ Notice you fellows take to it, anyhow,” said 
Penny. 

“ Oh sure! ” explained Dinks. “ We don’t 
believe in letting stuff go to waste.” 

“ Bet Penny brought some mosquito netting 
too,” surmised Headlight. 

“ You are betting on a certainty,” asserted 
Penny. “ Couldn’t fool me about mosquitoes in 
this Swamp. There’s one on your nose right 
now. ’ ’ 

“ Darn right,” said the other slapping at the 
intruder. “ You’re no bonehead, Penny.” 

“ How ’bout feeding? ” suggested Headlight 


TJncle Abe Entertains 


77 


after their labors were over and the boys bad 
stretched themselves on the ground to rest. 

“ Not yet,” said Happy. “ Me for a swim.” 

Suiting the action to the word, Happy began 
to strip, and while the other boys were deliberat- 
ing the advisability of a plunge in these strange 
waters he was off to the water’s edge and wad- 
ing out for some feet found himself in water 
deep enough to make some strokes. Before the 
other boys were completely undressed, however, 
they saw him making for shore with all possible 
speed. 

“ What shot you! ” called Dinks, as he saw 
the uneasy expression on the swimmer’s face. 

Happy gave a bound that landed him a couple 
of yards from the water’s edge, and as soon as 
he could recover enough breath gasped: “ Gee, 
fellows! I had a narrow escape.” 

“ What’s matter! ” came in chorus from the 
other three. 

“ One of these rainbow moccasins, that’s 
what’s the matter. A whopper too. Nc more 
swimming in that place.” Happy’s speech was 
emphatic. 

This decided the boys to don their clothes once 


78 The Boy Scouts of the Air 

more and confine their baths to basins for the 
rest of the trip. 

Supper was next in order and as the sun set 
behind the trees at the other end of the Lake and 
dusk was coming on, the campers lighted a fire 
of sticks and dead boughs and cooked their eggs 
and rashers of bacon. Canned goods and jams 
furnished part of the spread and Uncle Abe 
brought them an offering of some of his delicious 
corn pone and potatoes cooked in the ashes. 
Altogether it was a royal feast, and was con- 
sumed with their best scout appetite. 

After the meal they moved a respectful dis- 
tance from the blaze, on account of the warmth 
of the night and the unpleasant assembly of night 
bugs that put in an appearance. A fire, however, 
seemed an essential to camping and was a cheery 
companion amid such gloomy surroundings, ren- 
dered even more witching by the falling shadows 
of the evening. 

“ Spin us a yarn, Hap,” suggested Dinks. 
“ One with plenty of pep, about anything but 
airplanes. ’ ’ 

The incessant chorus of the frogs and a 
screech owl that raised melancholy wailings from 


Uncle Abe Entertains 


79 


the near-by woods intensified the desire of the 
boys for something lively. 

“ I tell you what you do,” said Penny. “ Get 
your banjo, Hap, and call Uncle Abe, and see if 
he can’t play us something.” 

Abe emerged from his cabin at their summons, 
and finding that he was in demand as an enter- 
tainer and that his favorite instrument, the 
banjo, was at hand, he grasped it delightedly and 
his face lighted up. 

6 6 1 used to could jes’ natchelly make a banjo 
spit music,” he declared. “ ’Twould jes y rare 
up and plum tear up de air, but I ain’t as lim- 
ber in my fingers as I use’ to be. Howsomever, 
ef you wants to hear a little sumpin’ fum a ole 
man, I’ll gin it to you.” 

Whereupon, tuning up the instrument, he be- 
gan to thrum and sing what might be called 
“ Be } Possum Serenade .” 

“ 0 you ’possum, squattin’ on yo’ meat, 

You soon gwine to grin in a blaze of 
heat ; 

’Taint no use to burruh in de trunk o’ 
dat oak, 


80 


The Boy Scouts of the Air 


Fer you gwine back out wid a mouf full 
o’ smoke. 

Ef you want to see a sight to fill you wid 
grace, 

Jes’ pop yo’ little eye at dis nigger’s 
face; 

Fer you sho’ is lucky to fall in wid me, 
Sence I feels in my bones we boun’ to 
’gree. 

A nice hot griddle gwine make you 
sweet, 

And I low you 11 be dere to ’sist me to 
eat; 

So I’se smackin’ of my lips same as 
Solo-mon, 

When he sang ’bout dat gal what he call 
his 6 hun.’ 

O dat gravy! 

0 dat juice! 

0 dat richness, 

Sweeter ’n goose! 

0 dat plumpness, 


Uncle Abe Entertains 81 

Smooth and sleek! 

O dem rib-bones! 

0 dat cheek! 

0 dem quarters, hind and foM 
Fill up my plate and den some mo’. 


I ain’t got no grudge ’gin a rabbit stew, 

But it ain’t wuth shucks ’long side o’ 
you, 

A-simmer’n and a-stewin’ in you’ tater- 
bed, 

While yo’ skin tuns brown and yo’ eyes 
gits red. 

Dey might call you Mose and dey might 
call you Sal; 

You might be a buck and you might be a 
gal. 

Ef you’se riz to yo’ prime or jes’ fixin’ 
to blossom, 

Dat ain’t ’sturbin’ me sence yo’ las’ 
name’s ’possum.” 


“ I knows a nation o’ dem songs,” declared 
Uncle Abe, after the applause died down, “ but 


82 


The Boy Scouts of the Air 


I got sich a misery fum de rheumatiz I can’t 
sing no mo’ than one mo’ to-night.” 

“ Give ns that! ” cried Happy. 

“ Go on, Uncle Abe,” came from the other 
boys. 

The old negro once more applied his gnarled 
fingers to the banjo, and rattling off a lively 
accompaniment to his creaky voice, rendered 
the “ Fight Between the Bull and the Bear.” 


“ A bull what done stray fum his fambly 
in de swamp 

Tnk de corduroy road to keep his foots 
frum gittin’ dawmp; 

Met a ole black b’ar come a-santerin’ 
along, 

Lak he calkerlate that road war jes’ 
whar he b’long. 

The bull stomp and snort when he see 
that fearsome critter, 

And his head ’gin to wobble and his tail 
to kinder flitter, 

Fer he ’member in his membry' his 
great-grindaddy say, 


Unde Abe Entertains 


83 


1 Ef you see a black b’ar, better clar him 
out de way.’ 

So he spake in de language what per- 
taineth to de bull, 

4 Ef you don’t git out dis path I gwine 
ruffle up yo’ wool.’ 

Den he close bof his eyes and lower ob 
his head, 

And driv a powerful drive fer to horn 
dat b’ar dead. 

But de b’ar he seen him cornin’ and he 
gint a mighty sprung, 

Cotch a lowmus’ gum branch and dar 
dat critter hung; 

And though he jump so swif’ he give 
hisse’f a jolt, 

Dat ain’t ’sturb him none, fer he hilt on 
to his holt. 

But de bull done shot furruds like he 
chasin’ ob his soul, 

And his fo’ foots got tangled in de mire 
ob a hole. 

And de mo’ he sot to juckin’ and to 
twistin’ and to wukkin\ 


84 


The Boy Scouts of the Air 


Mo’ dat pesterin’ mud kep’ a swushin’ 
and a suckin’. 

But de b’ar, fum his roost ’gun to ’splore 
dat bull’s back 

Fer to find hisse’f a flatform to light 
on-smack. 

And when de bull feel clat load his back- 
bone kinder give, 

And sumpin’ whisper in his year, ‘ You 
ain’t got long to live! ’ 

And spite all his rastlin’ de b’ar he 
’gun to tear, 

And the way dat bullhide look ain’t 
fitten’ fer to hear. 

But de widder and de chillun what dat 
bull done lef’ 

Ain’t got no fun’al notice ob his terri- 
bul def.” 


CHAPTER VIII 


THE PHANTOM BOAT 

After this second song Uncle Abe resisted all 
efforts to make him continue his singing, as- 
serting he was “ plum out o’ href,” but he 
agreed to tell them some tales about old times. 
And very amazing stories he did tell, full of 
witches and hants and headless animals 66 galli- 
vantin’ around,” stories not calculated to quiet 
the nerves of women and children. But his 
audience were scouts, there to resist all the ter- 
rors of the wilds and determined to remain 
undaunted. 

“ Ever hear of such a place as Long Ridge 
around here? ” asked Happy as the old man 
seemed to have finished what he declared would 
be his last story for that night. 

“ Long Redge? I reckon I has, but it don’t 
do no good ’scussin’ dat der place. It’s hanted. 
I heared tell ob a nigger what wuk his way thu 
de Swamp to dat place and foxfire and hants and 

85 


86 


The Boy Scouts of the Air 


skeletons set on him twell he run hissef to def 
try in’ to git away an’ he sunk in de Swamp 
twell his hade was plum kiwered up, an* ef he 
ain’t been right good at holdin’ his bref, he sho’ 
would o’ suffocate.” 

“ Did he tell you! 99 asked Penny. 

“ Naw, but I knowed a colored lady what he 
did tell, and I know it’s true as de Gawspel.” 

“ Where is it! 99 insisted Happy. 

“ Dat place! Back in de Swamp, yonder end ob 
de Lake. Sometimes you kin hear a rowboat out 
dere with de oars goin’ splash, splash, and lor’, 
honey, when I hears dat noise, I kiwers up my 
years and sticks my hade under de counterpane, 
fer de thing what is rowing dat boat is a hant.” 

Despite the efforts of the boys, Abe refused to 
be shaken from this opinion and shortly bade 
them good night and went back to his cabin. 
The campers made quick work of preparing for 
bed. They were so weary from the exertions of 
the day that not even the sounds of the Swamp 
and the mystery of the morrow could keep their 
eyelids open for long. 

About two o’clock Penny awoke with a start. 
For a moment he was dazed and puzzled why he 


The Phantom Boat 


87 


should be so wide awake when the shining moon 
showed that morning had not yet come. And 
then distinctly, perfectly distinctly, he heard a 
chug, chug, chug. It was a launch. At first he 
thought it might be the sounds of the day before 
still reverberating in his ears. But, again it came 
from the direction of the Lake, chug, chug, chug. 
He lay with ears tense and still the sounds came 
but every instant they grew fainter till finally he 
determined io awaken his sleeping neighbor who 
happened to be Happy. 

He shook the boy briskly but it was some sec- 
onds before the form emitted a sound, and then 
it was: “ Say, Mother, let me sleep a little 
longer. It’s not breakfast time yet.” 

“ Happy, Happy,” persisted Penny, “ wake 
up ! You are not at home. You’re in the Swamp. 
Wake up! Listen! ” 

“ Gee whillikins! ” yawned Happy, finally 
coming to himself and realizing where he was, 
“ is that you, Penny? What’s the matter? Any- 
thing happened? ” 

“ Listen, Happy, I heard a motor boat on the 
Lake! Listen!” 

Happy, now thoroughly alert, pricked up his 


88 


The Boy Scouts of the Air 


ears as lie raised himself on his elbows. To the 
amazement of Penny not a sound could be heard 
but the usual forest noises of the night. 

44 What you giving us, Penny? I don’t hear 
anything. You must be bughouse.” 

44 But I heard it a moment ago,” declared 
Penny. 44 It went chug, chug, chug, and no mis- 
take. I know I heard it. ’ ’ 

4 4 Rats ! ’ ’ said the other, stretching himself out 
again. 4 4 Go to sleep.” 

44 I know I heard it. Maybe it was the other 
launch! ” 

44 Rats! I say! ” 

44 Maybe somebody is stealing our launch.” 

The last suggestion seemed to seize Happy’s 
imagination. 

44 Look here,” he said, sitting up once more, 
44 you won’t give a fellow any rest till we see. So 
come on.” 

And getting out of his bunk, he slipped his feet 
into his shoes and reached for his gun, placed 
near the head of his bed ready for action. Penny 
also arose and the two moved in the direction of 
the lake shore. As they walked along, they 
peered into the distance but a cloud that obscured 


The Phantom Boat 


89 


the surface of tlie moon made vision difficult. 
There was light enough, however, when they 
reached the landing to see that the two craft were 
secure and apparently had not been tampered 
with. Then they stood for some minutes scanning 
the horizon and listening intently but no sus- 
picious sounds reached their ears. 

“ Look here, Penny,” said Happy, after they 
had returned to their bunks once more, 6 1 you are 
sho' ’nuf bughouse. All that hant talk has got 
you off your nut. Don't you wake me up any 
more with your phantom sounds or I'll scalp 
you." 

So saying, the speaker once more composed 
himself to sleep. 

Penny, despite every effort, was unable to fol- 
low his example, so convinced was he that he had 
heard the mysterious sounds. He might have 
been lying thus half an hour or more, when again 
he was startled. This time the sound was differ- 
ent. It was a distinct dip, dip, the sound of oars 
cleaving the silent waters, but faint and remote. 
Then suddenly he heard it no more. Possibly the 
night breeze had shifted its quarter and taken the 
sound with it. Perhaps it was the phantom boat. 


90 


The Boy Scouts of the Air 


Perhaps it was his own imagination. At any 
rate he would die before he would wake Happy 
again. So before many minutes, weariness got 
the upper hand; he fell into a sound sleep and 
did not wake again before morning. 


CHAPTER IX 


ON TIPTOE OF EXPECTANCY 

“ Some folks is so mean dat ef dey didn’t wear 
shoes dey’d make skunk tracks.” 

So declared Abraham Lamentations of Jere- 
miah Jones the next morning after breakfast, 
when Happy, Dinks and Headlight were having 
their fun with Penny about the strange things he 
said he heard the night before. 

“ Why don’t you stop pesterin’ dat boy! You 
don’t know what he done heard. Some folks 
years is so sot dat dey kin take in noises and 
things dat jest breshes de Hasps o’ other folks’ 
years. De Bible say out’n de mouf ob babes an’ 
suckin’ pigs shell come wisdom. So you let dat 
chile alone.” 

A loud laugh from the teasing three greeted 
these remarks, especially appropriate since 
Penny’s ears slanted off from his head at an 
angle of forty-five degrees. 

Penny was irritated but he took the joking as 
91 


92 


The Boy Scouts of the Air 


good-naturedly as possible. He was rather 
hardened, in fact. 

“ Say, Penny,” pursued Dinks despite Uncle 
Abe’s interference, “ let us know when Buck 
leaves Langley Field. You’ll be able to hear the 
motor as soon as she starts to buzz.” 

“ We’ve picked on Penny enough. Let’s do 
some exploring,” said Happy.. 

“ Headlight and I are going out in the shell,” 
declared Dinks. “ You two had your turn yes- 
terday. ’ ’ 

“ Don’t go far, fellows,” urged Happy, “ we 
may see Buck’s machine any minute.” 

It had been agreed that Buck was to soar over 
their camp as a signal for them to start for Wal- 
laceton, though to do this he would have to detour 
several miles from a beeline. 

Headlight and Dinks spent a good part of the 
forenoon sculling about the island within a radius 
of a mile, with eyes alert for any strange craft, 
for despite their jeering they secretly believed 
that there might be something in Penny’s story 
after all. They had landed once more, and the 
four boys stood in an expectant group near the 
lake shore for perhaps a half hour when sud- 


On Tiptoe of Expectancy 


93 


denly the keen ear of Happy detected the whirr 
of a distant motor, and, in almost less time than 
it takes to tell it the familiar machine soared high 
overhead, circled, and sped off to Wallaceton. 

The boys yelled and danced a brief war-dance 
and then made a break for the launch, which this 
time was to carry all four of them since their 
pressing curiosity allowed no traveling by such 
slow transport as a canoe. 

When they reached the landing place above the 
locks at Wallaceton, there stood Buck and Willis 
ready to greet them. 

“ Hop out boys and come to it,” yelled the 
eager Buck, a tall straight handsome fellow, with 
blond hair and a tiny moustache, and in his eyes 
a merry twinkle that could give place to steely 
determination when necessary. 

The four lads were instantly ashore, leaping 
and yelling like Indians, and they circled around 
their scoutmaster. 

1 ‘ Let ’s have it, Buck. Out with it ! ’ ’ urged 
Happy, grabbing Buck’s hand. “ Don’t keep us 
in the dark any longer. We couldn’t pry a blamed 
thing out of Dinks.” 

Dinks grinned grimly in appreciation of the 


94 The Boy Scouts of the Air 

compliment as to his capacity for keeping a 
secret. 

“ Look here, boys,” said Buck, “ Mrs. Willis 
has prepared a little lunch for us and she says 
we’ve got to eat it before we cut up any monkey 
shines. And what she says is law and gospel, ain’t 
it, Willis.” 

Willis, with a broad smile, declared this to be 
a fact. 

“ Just half an hour longer,” continued Buck, 
4 4 and the cat will be out of the bag. So let’s go 
up on the verandah and make ourselves at home 
till Mrs. Willis calls us in. How is that for taking 
things in your own hand in another man’s 
house? ” 

Willis affirmed that this was just the way he 
liked his guests to act, and thereupon all passed 
up the path to the house and made themselves 
comfortable in the chairs provided for them. 

“ Say, Buck, don’t mind talking about aviation 
in general, do you,” inquired Happy. 

“ Not a bit of it,” asserted the aviator, “ but 
don’t get down to particulars about mysteries.” 

“ Tell us how you felt the first time you went 
up by yourself, over there,” urged Happy. 


On Tiptoe of Expectancy 


95 


“ That’s right, Walke,” said Willis; “ tell the 
hoys that stuff. But don’t make yourself a hero 
as you usually do.” 

This was a little joke on Willis’ part, for there 
never was a man more modest about his own 
exploits than was Walke. 

“ Well, then, making allowances for my friend 
Willis and his little weaknesses, I’ll tell you how 
I felt the first time I went up for a solo flight — 
that is one you make by yourself. Dinks can tell 
you how it feels to go up as a passenger but, as 
he will learn some day, it’s a whole lot different 
from running the bird on your own hook without 
a blamed soul to fall back on, or fall down with. 
You know a fellow likes good company even when 
he’s taking a tumble. Well, I had the air bug in 
me from the time I hit France, and I set my traps 
to get in that service, and I behaved so rotten on 
earth that I think they decided to send me up in 
the air so that I could break my neck and they’d 
be rid of me. Well, I went through the usual 
training and I’ve told you boys about that a 
hundred times, I reckon, but when it goes to try- 
ing to tell you what my feelings were when I 
had that throbbing, sliding, gliding, quivering 


96 


The Boy Scouts of the Air 


creature all to myself, why, that’s another mat- 
ter. The feeling is something it’s almost impos- 
sible to put in plain, everyday words. A fellow 
has to get sorter poetic even though he’s as com- 
mon and practical as an old rail fence. When 
you get up three or four thousand feet and travel 
with your compass and map, you feel as if you 
owned the vast heavens and that the earth was 
your plaything. I don’t believe that any other 
sensation experienced by man can hold a candle 
to it. Your joyriding in a motor is just dry rot 
compared to joyriding up among the clouds. 
Then you can look down and see the earth in 
furrows and patches beneath you. You fellows 
have seen pictures taken from airplanes and 
you’ve seen the same things in the movies, but 
they can only give you a faint idea. They lack the 
color — the dark green of the forests, the light 
green of the com or wheat fields, the long ribbons 
that are roads glistening white, the little dots 
that are houses, and way off the ocean that is too 
wonderful to describe at all. 

“ When I said good-bye to my mechanic and 
climbed in for my first solo flight, I gave my 
machine the gun and made a slide, and I found I 


On Tvptoe of Expectancy 


97 


was flying instead of taxying and what I felt then 
I never expect to feel again in this life. I kept 
going up, up, in a great circle, on np till some 
little mist clouds gave me a bump. Then I took 
a look at my barograph.” 

“ What’s a barograph? ” interrupted Happy. 

“ A barograph is a self-recording barometer. 
It measures the pressure of the air by its action 
on the elastic lid of a box from which the air has 
been exhausted. And it has a little inked needle 
that registers the temperature. I’ll show it to 
you later. But, as I was saying, when I got that 
bump, I realized I’d have to stop viewing the 
scenery and put all my mind on my machine. I 
remembered the warnings I had had about holes 
in the air.” 

4 4 Holes in the air! ” exclaimed Penny. 

“ Yes, there are places in the atmosphere not 
as dense as others, and your plane may flop before 
you know it. You have to keep your eyes open 
and watch your recorders. But, as I was saying, 
after that bump I throttled my engine until it 
began to pull but wasn’t working too hard, and 
then I was off, keeping an eye on the barograph 
to see whether I was going up or down and trying 


98 


The Boy Scouts of the Air 


to keep my wing level; for sometimes, before you 
know it, the wing is so low that the nose of the 
machine has a mischief of a time trying to follow 
it. Well, I flew on for about half an hour and 
made a wide sweep and steered back for my start- 
ing place, and when I finally made a clean landing 
the mechanic and the rest of the bunch crowded 
round and gave me a regular ovation. And when 
I crawled out of that machine I can tell you I was 
the proudest man on earth. They ’ll tell you, if 
you can’t make a respectable sized field, you 
haven’t got it in you to fly and might as well 
quit.” 

“ Say, Buck,” said Happy, as the speaker 
paused , 1 ‘ think I could make a field ? ’ ’ 

‘ 6 Sure ! You could make it and fertilize it too, ’ ’ 
said Buck with a laugh, “ fertilize it with your 
carcass. Happy, you’d collect everything in the 
air in your propeller, all the pigeons and buz- 
zards and eagles. By the way, speaking of get- 
ting an eagle, you know what happened not long 
ago in the Himalaya mountains? Where are 
they, Dinks? ” 

“ India,” answered Dinks readily, as if sur- 
prised at the question. 


On Tiptoe of Expectancy 


99 


4 1 Righto ! A French aviator named Poulet, 
while soaring above a mountain, was attacked by 
an eagle. Who sees the joke? ” 

There was silence for a moment. 

“ Don’t sound like much joke to me,” affirmed 
Penny. “ What’s the catch? I bite.” 

“ Oh, I get you! ” exclaimed Happy, who had 
studied French and was proud to exhibit his 
knowledge, “Poulet is French for chicken. No 
wonder that eagle tried to pounce on him. ’ ’ 

“ Happy gets the interpreter’s badge,” said 
Walke, laughing, “ but I don’t see why the rest 
of you didn’t guess it when I began by ‘ speaking 
of chicken.’ ” 

“ Speaking of chicken, also,” put in Willis, 
as the boys laughed, “ here comes Mrs. Willis to 
announce that she has a plentiful supply of that 
fowl for our present consumption.” 

Mrs. Willis greeted the boys and the party 
passed to the dining room that they had seen 
before, but this time with the addition of six 
Willises in all stages of growth and on the table 
a most stupendous pile of the most appetizing 
fried chicken destined to disappear with amazing 
rapidity. 


100 


The Boy Scouts of the Air 


Not a word was spoken on the subject of the 
mystery until dinner was over and all had ad- 
journed to the oblong living room, which, despite 
several handsome pieces of mahogany furniture, 
had a certain appearance of bareness. 

First, Mr. Willis proceded to slip out of his 
coat. It was a part of the regulations of the 
mistress of the house that coats should always be 
worn at the dining table, even though the mercury 
stood at a hundred or more. The guests 9 undress 
khaki breeches and brown shirts had been tol- 
erated because they were a sort of uniform, and, 
of course, a uniform must be respected at all times 
and in all places. 

“ Well, boys,” began Buck, “ are you ready for 
the secret? 99 

“ Aye! aye! sir,” Happy led off eagerly. 

And, “A ye! aye! sir,” echoed the rest of the 
crew of the Carrie Call . 

“ Now just look at my friend Willis,” con- 
tinued Walke. “ Look at him. Does he look as if 
he ever had an idea higher than a corn tassel? ” 

The good-natured face of the host expanded 
into a broad grin, wherewith he looked even less 
inventive than usual. 


On Tiptoe of Expectancy 101 

“ Though you may not believe it, Willis has 
been projecting with machinery ever since he 
pulled the nipple off his first milk bottle to see 
how it worked. Then I pass over his later feat 
of smashing up his daddy ’s grandfather clock to 
get a closer view of its innards. Ten years ago, 
when he was about the age I am now, he was run- 
ning a motor boat place in Norfolk, and a little 
later, finding autos more profitable, he installed 
that department and was doing a blazing busi- 
ness when he inherited this farm in the wilder- 
ness. Immediately he came to the conclusion that 
city highways and alleys were no place to bring 
up children and he came up here to feed them on 
juniper water and corn pone, with the husky re- 
sults you 3a w at dinner. 

“ You see this house is reeking with young 
Willises, each of whom can pull anything to pieces 
but none of them has yet reached the age when 
they can patch the wrecks together again. But, 
as I said, look hard at my friend Willis. He’s one 
of the greatest inventors of the age. Under that 
bald dome of his he had an idea and, boys, that 
idea is now standing in spruce and wire and metal, 
with its joystick ready for operations in that 


102 


The Boy Scouts of the Air 


mysterious hangar in the rear of the garden be- 
hind the tomato and celery beds and that idea, 
boys, is a flivver . 5 5 

“ A flivver! 55 exclaimed Headlight with evi- 
dent disappointment, while Happy and Penny 
dropped their jaws and Dinks laughed uproar- 
iously. “ Oh, shucks, I thought it was a plane . 5 5 

“ Keep your wits awake, boys , 55 said Buck with 
a smile. “ Who ever heard of one of Ford’s tin 
cars made of spruce, with a joystick and cradled 
in a hangar. Whien I say flivver I use it in the 
sense of anything small. For instance, I 5 d call 
our chum Dinks a flivver . 55 

Dinks grunted disapproval, to the merriment 
of the more elongated members of his bunch. 

“ You see, then , 55 pursued Buck, “ Willis has 
constructed a flivver airplane. He experimented 
with those toy things first, just as you fellows 
did, but he looked at one through a magnifying 
glass and got the great idea. Well, he invented 
a machine that a babe in arms can operate. I 
thought I’d tell you this much so you wouldn’t be 
disappointed when you first lay eyes on it. Now, 
Willis, lead the way . 5 5 

The boys, forgetting where they were, raised a 


On Tiptoe of Expectancy 


103 


great shout and then there was a wild hum of dis- 
cussion. Willis, who had been serenely puffing 
away at his meerschaum, in full enjoyment of his 
growing celebrity, now rose from his seat and led 
Buck and the jabbering group of youngsters from 
the house and through the garden to the gate that 
admitted to the enclosure of the mysterious 
hangar. 


\ 





CHAPTER X 


THE FLIVVER IS UNMASKED 

Tucker, the mechanic, unlocked and threw open 
the doors and there was an instant rush of young 
feet into the building. 

“ It sure is a flivver,” was Headlights first 
remark as the group gathered around the tiny 
plane standing in the center of the shed in its 
spick-and-span newness. 

“ Gosh! she ’s a beaut! ” came from Happy, 
and then a torrent of comment from all four boys 
at once. Buck and the inventor looked on in 
undisguised delight at the rapture of the 
youngsters. 

“ I can run her right away,” declared Dinks, 
who felt a kind of proprietorship from his pre- 
vious knowledge of the secret. 

“ Not on your life, kid,” said Buck. “ You 
don’t do any soloing for some time to come. 
Haven’t I told you what I had to go through 
before those chaps over there were foolish enough 
104 


The Flivver Is Unmasked 


105 


to trust a bird to me, and here a whippersnapper 
like you is talking about handling one by your 
lonesome. You’ve got another think coming to 
you, old man. What do you think of his nerve, 
Willis — and it’s your machine, too? ” 

44 Get a little growth, Dinks, said Willis smil- 
ing. 44 You know birds don’t begin to fly the day 
they are hatched.” 

44 That’s a rich one. Now won’t you be good ! ” 
jeered Happy. 

44 I’ll fix you later,” returned Dinks with a 
glare, and subsided. Meanwhile, Tucker pushed 
the machine closer to the door, to show off its 
points to more advantage. 

4 4 Gee, Happy, she’s no taller than I am,” said 
Headlight, standing on tiptoe. 

44 Man size, eh? ” commented Walke, while the 
other boys let out horselaughs. 

44 You see,” put in Willis with the enthusiasm 
of a fond parent , 44 she’s just seventeen feet from 
nose to tail — almost pocket size, especially when 
her wings are folded.” 

He proceeded to exhibit this last device amid 
many expressions of wonder and admiration. 

44 Now, as to speed,” continued the inventor, 


106 


The Boy Scouts of the Air 


“ although Walke has got to put her to some more 
tests, we feel sure she’ll reach a speed of ninety 
miles an hour. Ain’t that right? ” 

The last question was put to the mechanic, who 
declared he would bet his last dollar on it. 

“ And another thing to commend her, she can 
navigate seventy-five miles on one gallon of 
gasoline.” 

“ Golly! ” Dinks interrupted, “ so a fellow 
could fly to town and a good way back on just one 
gallon of juice? ” 

“ That’s Walke ’s estimate and he ought to 
know. ’ ’ 

“ When are they going to be for sale? ” asked 
Dinks. “ I’ll make Father buy one if it takes his 
last cent.” 

“ Don’t press your dad too hard,” laughed 
Willis, “ for it’ll be some time before they get 
that far. But pretty soon we are going to have 
a place in Norfolk and Tucker is going to add to 
his force and turn the trick. Before they get 
ready for the public, though, Walke and I have 
decided to let you fellows have one.” 

There arose at once a tempest of applause from 
the boys, especially from Headlight and Dinks. 


The Flivver Is Unmasked 


107 


“ Provided/ ’ pursued the host, after the 
excitement had subsided to a degree, “ you can 
make it yourselves. That is some order — but you 
can fill it.” 

“ Do you mean it! ” exclaimed Dinks un- 
daunted by the proviso . ct Gee! this suits me from 
the ground up. When do we start? ” 

“ I believe I could build one by myself,” 
asserted Headlight. 

“ Yes, you could! ” retorted Dinks, “ I’ll eat 
all you can make.” 

To prevent further dispute, the host continued 
hurriedly: “ I don’t mean for you boys to go it 
alone. You can work under the direction of 
Tucker. You can’t be masters, you know, before 
you go through an apprenticeship. We expect to 
have things set up in town before fall and you 
kids will have a couple of months to work before 
school begins.” 

“ Think I’ll be able to fly to school! ” asked 
Happy. “ There’s a dandy playground near to 
light in.” 

“ Hap, you’ve got a heap to learn,” said Dinks 
pityingly. 

“ Happy and Penny can tote wood for us, and’ 


108 The Boy Scouts of the Air 

hold things while we are working,” put in 
Headlight. 

“ Hold, the mischief! ” protested Penny. “ I 
reckon I’ve got just as good a head on me as 
you fellows! ” 

“ Quit this! ” interposed Buck. “ There’ll be 
glory enough for all, and when the job’s done 
you three fellows will be able to prove your claim 
to the aviation badge, that’s a cinch, whether 
your parents let you fly or not.” 

“ When they see a machine like this, I know 
they’ll come around,” asserted Happy. 

“ I haven’t a doubt of it,” agreed Walke, 
“ but don’t count chickens before they are 
hatched. You’ve got to do some hot hatching 
first. But now, Willis, let’s have a test and 
show these kids what your baby bird can do.” 

Tucker was accordingly directed to give the 
plane a close looking over, and after his favor- 
able report, his handiwork was rolled out and 
placed in position at the most suitable spot for 
making a start. 

The party from the house was followed by a 
motley crowd, attracted by the report that Mr. 
Willis’ secret “ contraption ” was going to take 


The Flivver Is Unmashed 


109 


the air. The first trial flight had been made 
with all possible secrecy at daybreak and few 
had had an opportunity to feast, their eyes. 
Now was their chance. 

“ Mr. Walke, is you goin’ up in dat dere cha’iot 
and break yo’ neck right after all dat good 
dinner you done et? ” asked the waiting maid. 
Getting no answer, she continued: “ I wouldn’t 
go in dat dere trap eben ef a angel come straight 
fum Hebben fer to gib me a lift. Nah, suh! ” 

66 Eh, Lawd! agreed Dinah. “ Ain’t it de 
truf? Look lak he jes’ gib’ de good Lawd a dare 
fer to break his neck. An’ I wouldn’t git in one 
o’ dem contraptions eben fer to chase a turkey 
buzzard w T hat I saw flyin’ off wid a bag wid a 
million dollars in it and dat w r as my only chance 
to ketch him. Nah, suh! ” 

Jake, a farm hand, was looking on in silent 
and open-mouthed wonder. 

“ Look out there, Jake,” called out Mr. Bull, 
the storekeeper. “ When that there thing starts 
to fly it’s goin’ to run right straight down your 
throat. ’ ’ 

Whereupon Jake shut his mouth with a sharp 
click and a look of intense alarm, as if he really 


110 The Boy Scouts of the Air 

were convinced of the possibility of this hap- 
pening. 

“ Sure it’ll work? ” asked Dinks excitedly of 
the group of future aviators. 

“ Been up in it when it wasn’t in as good 
shape as it is now,” replied Buck, “ and you see 
I’ve got a full set of bones still. Just keep your 
mouth shut and pop your eyes.” 

“ What are you buttin' in for, Dinks? ” de- 
manded Headlight. “ You think you know every 
blamed thing because you've been up a couple 
of times in an old Wright.” 

“ Now for our little joyride,” said Buck, pre- 
paring to climb into the well. 

“ Looks like a toyride to me,” asserted Mr. 
Bull. “ Don’t look like it's fitten for a full 
grown man to trust hisself to. Why don't you 
put some o' them kids in that hole and trundle 
’em around the field? " 

Buck ignored the remark, but the boys shot 
indignant glances at the speaker, with murmurs 
of “ Smart Aleck! Thinks he's funny! Well 
named! Bull is right! ” To all of which Bull 
listened with smiling indifference. 

“ Great weather! ” declared Willis, as Buck 


The Flivver Is Unmasked 


111 


seized the rod. “ Wouldn’t care to have you 
tackle a tornado in my newborn kiddie-kar; hut 
to-day will fit her to a T.” 

Buck called out “ Ready! ” the lads held the 
tail as directed and the screw was started in 
motion along the smooth turf, the midget rolled 
and then took the quiet air with all the grace 
of a bird. 

“ Let’s give him a yell! ” suggested Happy, as 
soon as he could find his voice, “ the school yell, 
with Mr. Willis on the end. And then one for 
Buck.” 

“ Hiddy ko-wax! ko-wax! ko-wax! Rah! rah! 
rah! Rah! rah! rah! Willis! ” Then ditto for 
Buck. 

Two wild yells nearly drowned out the purring 
of the motor overhead and made the negro audi- 
ence stare with a kind of terror. 

Willis, whose eyes had been fixed on his 
ascending machine, bowed briskly and grinned 
to the width of his countenance in appreciation 
of the compliment. 

Meanwhile Buck was circling the field, but he 
gave no evidence of attempting stunts in his fra- 
gile craft, though the boys watched intently for 


112 The Boy Scouts of the Air 

nosespins, loop-the-loops or something still more 
thrilling. 

“ Seem like dem chillun gone plum crazy,” sug- 
gested Dinah to her dusky companion, as the 
boys continued to emit unearthly yells. 

“ I knowed wouldn’t no good come o’ all dis 
tamperin’ wid de good Lawd’s sky what war 
made fob the buzzard and de bullbats. Fust 
thing dey knows dey gwine come down talkin’ 
evy-which-a-way, like dem folks what tried to 
h’ist desseves to Hebben in de Bible.” 

Dinah and her group moved still further away 
to avoid any possible catastrophe. And when 
the intenser sounds of the motor accompanied 
the down circling plane, there was a scampering 
of the blacks to distant places of safety. With- 
out accident, however, down she came and, strik- 
ing the ground gently, gilded to a spot not far 
from the doors of the hangar. Scarcely had the 
aviator climbed from his seat when he was 
seized bodily by the shouting boys, elevated to 
their shoulders, and pranced around in the most 
violent fashion. Only the superior age of Willis 
saved him from like treatment. 

“ By Jove, Buck, you’re a wizard,” declared 


The Flivver Is TJnmashed 


113 


Dinks, when the hero was once more on his feet 
again. “ Ran as smoothly as a Curtiss. Gee! 
I’m crazy to get my hands on that joy-stick. I 
can’t wait, that’s all there is about it.” 

“ Speaking of wizards,” protested Buck, 
4 6 there ’s your wizard — Willis yonder. I ’m just 
one of his imps. And you’ll have to do a little 
waiting before you join the crew, but, as long 
as you are so hot, I reckon I’ll have to give you 
a little consolation lift in my machine.” 

Straightway arose a shout of joy from Dinks 
and a little buzz of disappointment from Head- 
light and Happy. The prudent Penny was silent. 

First, however, the flivver had to be safely 
housed and then Dinks vaulted into the seat, saw 
to his straps and, with six anxious eyes fixed 
upon him, rose swiftly on his journey. 

After a flight of ten minutes or so over the 
neighboring forests, the triumphant Dinks was 
deposited once more among his chums. Instantly 
Buck was besieged by a chorus of beseeching 
voices. 

“ I’d take you fellows soon enough, but it’s 
against the law. Promised your parents faith- 
fully I’d do nothing of the sort.” 


114 The Boy Scouts of the Air 

u Tell you what I ’ll do, I’ll phone to Norfolk. 
May I, Mr. Willis? I think I can persuade Dad,” 
pleaded Headlight. 

“ Don’t think you can,” objected Buck. “ You 
know your dad’s got a red head like you. But 
if you choose to phone, go ahead, provided you 
tell him I didn’t put you up to it.” 

“ Blessed if I’m not going to phone too. I 
know I can bring the old man around,” declared 
Happy. 

‘ ‘ And I — ” started Penny, and then remem- 
bered that his parents had left town on a trip 
and the game was up so far as he was concerned. 

The two boys with hopes disappeared but, in 
a few minues, Headlight returned, so gloomy of 
face that it required no wizard to divine what his 
answer had been. 

“ Told you so,” said Buck, after he had heard 
the father’s very positive and emphatic “no.” 
But where’s Happy? ” 

“ Oh, he’s at it now. He’ll have same luck I 
had. ’ ’ 

But in something over ten minutes Happy ap- 
peared with a grin on his face and yelled for 
Buck to come to the phone, and not many minutes 


The Flivver Is Unmashed 115 

later the two emerged, Happy with a triumphant 
look on his face. 

“ Don’t mean to say your dad gave in? ” 
inquired Headlight rather savagely. 

“ You bet he did! You bet he did! ” said 
Happy exultantly. “ I worked the game to a 
finish and then he made me call Buck and got 
him to promise not to do any stunts and to phone 
him as soon as we came down. Hurrah! 99 

So, to the admiration of Penny and the envy 
of Headlight, Happy seated himself in the pit 
with great celerity, strapped himself in, and the 
pair rose to the heavens. This time the watching 
group saw the plane make off in the direction of 
the Lake and it was a good fifteen minutes before 
the glowing and exultant Happy was standing 
once more on terra firma, bubbling over with his 
new experience and comparing notes with the 
experienced Dinks. Both boys were fairly burst- 
ing with importance. 

It was a wild and noisy group that spent the 
following two hours on the porch of Mr. Willis’ 
house talking nothing but airplane, and merely 
interrupting their chatter to take a bite at the 
cookies and sip the refreshing lemonade that Mrs. 


116 The Boy Scouts of the Air 

Willis had provided to counteract the heat of 
the afternoon. 

“ Now, fellows,’ ’ announced Buck while the 
talk was still in full sway, “ IVe got to leave 
you for a day. Got to get back to Langley Field 
to settle up some business, but to-morrow or the 
next day I’ll be back again. So you’ll have to 
paddle your own canoe on Lake Drummond till 
that time under old Abe’s superintendence. But 
when I get back, I’m going to leave my plane 
here and come over and we’ll have a good quiet 
week in the wilds. My nerves are taut and I 
need the change and that’s the reason I selected 
this as one of the finest places in the world to 
get a fellow toned up again. 

“ You can take care of yourselves for a day 
or so, can’t you? ” 

The boys alarmed that they were fully capable 
of doing so. “ And we’ll have some time, won’t 
we,” continued Walke with the enthusiasm of a 
boy, “ talking aviation and forestry and explor- 
ing the Swamp and canoeing and swimming 
and — ” 

“ Not that last,” interrupted Happy. “ Too 
much company in that pond. No more for me.” 


The Flivver Is TJnmashed 


117 


And he told of his experience with the water 
moccasin. 

“ All right/ ’ agreed Buck, “ we’ll take our 
showers from Uncle Abe’s watering pot and flirt 
with the snakes from the bank. And Happy tells 
me about Penny thinking he heard a strange boat 
putting in sometime during the night. We’ll run 
down that spook without an ouija board. Must 
be that old girl the poet Moore tells about. She 
lost her lover and wandered off and died in the 
Swamp or something like that, and I remember 
the verse about 

‘ ‘ ‘ They made her grave too cold and damp 
For a soul so warm and true; 

And she’s gone to the Lake of the Dis- 
mal Swamp 

Where all night long by a firefly lamp, 

She paddles her white canoe. ’ ” 

“ Dinks told me it was about a woman who 
used to sleep up there,” remarked Penny, “ and 
tried to show that proved there wasn’t any 
snakes around.” 

“ Well, I never could get any sense out of 
poetry anyhow,” explained Dinks. “ Anyhow, 
I got the firefly lamp straight.” 


118 The Boy Scouts of the Air 

An hour later Buck had departed for Langley 
Field and the boys were well on their way hack 
to their camping place. 

“ Say, fellows/ ’ said Happy, “ I can’t get 
over the sensation in that airplane. I feel as if 
I was gliding along right now. Oh, boy! Noth- 
ing like it, is there, Dinks? ” 

“ Talking right, son. It beats anything I ever 
felt yet.” 

“ Don’t see why yon keep throwing it in a 
fellow’s face,” protested Headlight moodily. 
“ Wait till I go np and then blow around me.” 

“ Say, Headlight,” said Happy, “ I wasn’t 
trying to horse it over you but I’m so full of 
that joy feeling I can’t keep it in. By the way, 
what do you think I saw on the trip? ” 

“ What? ” asked Dinks, as Happy evidently 
expected a question. 

‘ 1 Long Ridge.” 

“ The mischief you did! ” returned Dinks 
doubtingly. “ How could you tell it? By the 
electric signs? ” 

“ I could tell it,” explained Happy, “ because 
is was the only clearing anywhere near the head 
of the Lake. Saw some saw-mill places near the 


119 


The Flivver Is Unmasked 

canal but this was the only open place anywhere 
near the lake shore. I could see a cabin, too. It 
looked like a little speck but there wasn’t any 
mistaking it was a house.” 

“ See any people? ” askeji Penny. 

“ There goes nut again. Don’t you know you 
can’t see people that high in an airplane? ” 

“ Don’t s’pose you saw Penny’s launch 
either,” said Headlight. 

‘ ‘ No, but I saw your head, Headlight, and I 
thought another sun was rising.” 

“ Shut up or I’ll make that alabaster forehead 
of yours the same color as my hair,” retorted 
Headlight. 

“ I’ll get you to do that some day,” returned 
Happy. “ I want to see how a hot-air artist can 
paint. But, to drop small matters, I’m going to 
find that Long Ridge or bust. ’ ’ 

“ All right, Christopher Columbus Amerigo 
Vespucci Magellan, we’ll see,” retorted Head- 
light. 

Happy, determined to keep his good humor 
as well as his resolve, soon changed the subject, 
and in a cheerful mood the lads reached Abe’s 
island as the sun was close to its setting. It is 


120 


The Boy Scouts of the Air 


needless to say that that evening was devoted 
to a discussion of the day’s experiences and the 
future possibility of the flivver, even excluding 
from their minds Penny’s phantom noises and 
the gloom and grandeur of the Dismal Swamp. 


CHAPTER XI 


A MIDNIGHT AWAKENING 

“ Wake up here! What are you kids doin’ 
around here, anyway? ” a gruff voice sounded in 
Happy’s ears. 

The dazed boy first thought he was dreaming, 
but the grasp on his arm was a very solid reality. 
In another instant his opening eyes were blinded 
by a vivid stream of light. 

“ I say, what are you kids doin’, sleeping out 
here? ” the voice came again, and Happy, now 
wide awake, was seized with terror as he dis- 
tinguished a man’s form looming up in the 
shadows behind the dark lantern. Instinctively 
his free hand made a movement in the direction 
of the gun he had placed near the head of his 
couch. 

The intruder seized his hand and put it back 
roughly. 

“ Don’t think I’m fool enough to interview 
people while they’ve got guns sticking around 
121 


122 The Boy Scouts of the Air 

handy, do you? I took good care to move that 
out of the way. Answer my question, kid.” 

A host of wild conjectures crowded on the 
boy’s confused brain, but mindful of his man- 
hood, he summoned up courage to answer. He 
could feel Penny’s form drawing up close to his. 
The others had made no movement. 

“ Who are you? What do you want? ” he 
managed to stammer out. 

“ That’s all right who I am. I want to know 
what you’re doing up here,” was the surly reply. 

“ We’re — we’re just camping.” 

“ Campin’? Who’d let kids that haven’t cut 
their eye teeth come out here in this wilderness 
campin’? Where’s your nurse? ” 

Happy was too scared to resent the insult. 

“ I say, where’s the man that tends you? ” 

“ We — we are able to take care of ourselves,” 
Happy managed to say with a grain of bravado. 

4 4 Looks like you’re spunkin’ up some,” said 
the man with a hoarse laugh that was more like 
a growl. “ Reckon you is them boys that came 
up day before yesterday.” 

“ Yes, and you — ” 

“ The ones you thought you was chasin’, I 


A Midnight Awakening 


123 


reckon you want to say. But we was tendin’ to 
our business, and you warn’t tendin’ to yours.” 

The man paused as a stir was heard from the 
direction of Dinks and Headlight. Another light 
was sprung on these two from the hand of a 
second man, whom Happy up to this time had 
not noticed. The newly awakened lads went 
through the stages of bewilderment, alarm and 
a show of resistance. 

44 Lay still! Lay still, boys! ” commanded the 
second man in what he intended as a reassuring 
tone but exhibiting a pistol at the same time. 
44 Lay still! We ain’t goin’ to hurt you. Your 
friend there is just goin’ through with a little 
cross-examination. ” 

44 We don’t want nothin’ with you boys,” con- 
tinued Happy’s captor, the bearded individual of 
the mysterious launch, addressing the whole 
group, 44 but for you to answer a few questions 
and answer ’em straight. Have you seen any 
man, kinder suspicious lookin’ hangin’ around 
this island? ” 

44 There’s nobody but old Uncle Abe who lives 
in that cabin yonder,” volunteered Dinks with a 
trembling voice. 


124 The Boy Scouts of the Air 

The bearded man peered through the gloom in 
the direction indicated. 

4 4 Go up there, Bill,” he directed his com- 
panion, “ and rouse up that nigger and question 
him. I’ll tend to these boys.” 

Without comment the one addressed as Bill 
replaced his pistol in his belt and by the light 
of his bull’s-eye proceeded in the direction of the 
cabin. 

“ Now, you boys,” continued the stranger in a 
more conciliatory tone, “ just git over your 
scare and talk up. You all swear you ain’t seen 
nor heard of any other man on this island but 
that nigger you say’s over there.” 

All answered affirmatively in a tone of grow- 
ing confidence. Penny, who had been drawn into 
a sort of knot, got into the same sitting posture 
as the other pajamaed forms. 

“ You there,” exclaimed the man, turning his 
light full on Penny, “ you look like you was 
keepin’ sumpin’ back. I b’lieve you know 
sumpin’ you’re not tellin’. Have you seen any- 
body! ” 

“ Not a soul,” affirmed the lad in a tremulous 
tone. 


A Midnight Awakening 


125 


“ Not a soul, eli? I ain’t talkin’ about souls 
but bodies and rotten bodies at that. Heard any- 
thing? ” 

“I haven’t — I didn’t hear anything — any- 
thing but — ’ ’ 

“ But? But what? Out with it.” 

“ I haven’t — that is, I did — ” 

“ What’s the use o’ springing that spook stuff, 
Penny? ” cut in Dinks contemptuously. “ Tell 
him you haven’t.” 

“ You shut up,” said the man to Dinks and 
then to his victim: “ Out with it! What did 
you hear? ” 

4 4 I thought I heard — ” 

“ What? ” viciously questioned their unwel- 
come cross-questioner. 

“ I woke up in the night and thought I heard 
a launch.” 

“ You did, did you? ” said the man sourly. 
“ What time? ” 

“ What time was it, Happy? ” appealed 
Penny. 

“ ’Bout two o’clock, I reckon,” explained 
Happy in a tone that showed he was not over 
pleased at the other’s revelations. 


126 The Boy Scouts of the Air 

“ Did you hear it? ” demanded the man, turn- 
ing on Happy. 

“ How could I hear anything when it was all 
in RoyalPs head? First, I did think maybe 
somebody had walked off with our boat, so we 
went down to the water to see. Hadn’t any- 
thing happened, so I rolled in again.” 

“ You other two? ” quizzed the man. 

“ We were both sound asleep,” explained 
Dinks firmly. 

“ You, then,” the man again addressed Penny, 
“ hear anything else last night? ” 

“I — I did think, I heard a sound — like oars 
about half an hour later, or maybe an hour. I 
couldn’t get to sleep, so I was lying awake when 
I heard it.” 

“ Lying awake,” said the man with a laugh. 
“ Hope you are not lying now. You heard 
oars? ” 

‘ ‘ A minute or two and then I didn ’t hear any- 
thing more.” 

“ Did you call the others? ” 

“ No, because I wasn’t sure, and Happy — ” 

“ Who’s Happy? Oh, that kid. Haven’t been 
feeling up to your name the last ten minutes, 


A Midnight Awakening 


127 


Happy. What? Who’s your father? And let’s 
hear who the rest of you are.” 

The answers were fired in a volley and the 
hoys felt a sense of security when he dropped 
into a more respectful tone. 

“ You ain’t no po’ white trash, are you? ” he 
said with a snap. “ I’ve heard them names be- 
fore but you’re mighty free givin’ your folks 
away. How do you know I didn’t want to kidnap 
a couple of you? But listen here, I didn’t mean 
nothin’ by givin’ you this hyuh scare. I run 
across them boats down on the lake shore and I 
had to find out who came in ’em. The why and 
the wherefore ain’t none o’ your business but 
my advice to you boys is to clear out of this 
place as soon as you can, bright and early this 
morning. It ain’t no safe place for boys, nor 
men either for that matter.” 

The lads attempted to worm some reason out 
of him for the caution, but he gave them not a 
hint and persisted in his advice, which was prac- 
tically a command. 

‘ ‘ But Buck — Lieutenant Walke — our scout- 
master, will be up to-morrow some time, and we 
planned to camp here a week,” objected Dinks. 


128 The Boy Scouts of the Air 

“ I don’t care if the Queen of Sheba is cornin’, 
you’ve got to clear out,” proclaimed the man. 
“ Who’s Lieutenant Walke, anyway? ” 

“ He’s an aviator in the service of the United 
States,” declared Dinks with pride, “ and he 
doesn’t stand for any fooling around him.” 

“ And I reckon I’m somebody in the service 
of the county of Princess Anne,” returned the 
intruder unmoved. Apparently he was about to 
open his coat and make a display of authority 
but he dropped his hand before completing the 
gesture. 

“ Whoever your friend is, tell him to get you 
kids out of here as soon as possible, but to-night 
at the outside. I tell you there’s danger in these 
woods, and if you haven’t cleaned out by eve- 
ning, I’ll be here to find out the reason why.” 

The boys protested and were still protesting 
and asserting their rights when the other man 
returned from Abe’s cabin. 

“ I pretty near scared that old coon to death,” 
he announced to his mate as he emerged from 
the darkness into the shaft of light, “ but I con- 
vinced myself he hasn’t been this way.” He 
stressed the he to indicate the mysterious person 


A Midnight Awakening 


129 


they were seeking. “ If you’ve done with the 
kids, come on let’s beat it.” 

“ Remember what I told you,” warned the 
bearded man as he prepared to join his com- 
panion. 4 4 If you want your guns, you’ll find 
’em on the wharf. I sent them down there. 
Don’t budge from here till we get off or there’ll 
be trouble. You hear me? ” 

The boys made no reply, and listened in silence 
till the two were out of earshot. 

“ What’ll we do,” whispered Dinks. “ Get up 
and crawl ’em? ” 

“ Oh, lie still,” whispered back Headlight. 
“ Why didn’t you hand out the bull while they 
were here? ” 

“ Gee! I was scared! ” confessed Happy. “ I 
don’t mind saying it. I’ve been scared out of a 
year’s growth. Blessed if I don’t believe I 
shrunk a foot.” 

“ 1 wasn’t feeling so chesty,” conceded Dinks, 
“ when I found our guns were gone. But who 
are those roughnecks? How do you figure it 
out? ” 

The boys stopped whispering to listen. A 
clear dip, dip of oars reached their ears. 


130 The Boy Scouts of the Air 

u Thank the Lord they’re gone! ” exclaimed 
Penny. “ It was that other launch crowd, sure, 
but where was the slacker? 99 

“ Your thought is clear as mud, Penny,” de- 
clared Happy. “ I’ve got the dope. We were 
off about suspecting the slacker was in their 
bunch. They ’re officers hunting him. They want 
to clear us out so there won’t be any chance of 
our running the crook down and getting the 
reward. Get me? 99 

“ You noticed the bearded guy said that he 
sent our guns down to the wharf. That shows 
they had a third man along,” inferred Dinks. 

“ I believe you’ve hit the bull’s-eye,” agreed 
Headlight. “ But where has that third scout 
been since he left the launch? ” 

“ Search me! ” said Dinks. “ But speaking 
of searching, who’s going to see about our guns? 
It would be a dirty trick if those scoundrels have 
walked off with our guns and^ our boats too.” 

“ Well, I’m not going to see till daybreak,” 
affirmed Happy, reaching for his watch and the 
matchbox under his rustic pillow. 

“ Three o’clock,” he announced. “ It won’t 
be so long before day.” 


A Midnight Awakening 


131 


Again the boys all listened intently and heard 
the sound of oars growing fainter and fainter. 

“ One thing sure,” surmised Dinks, “ they’re 
in a rowboat. They didn’t swipe our launch or 
the canoe, unless they’re towing them off.” 

They continued to discuss the exciting incident 
just past, comforted by the prospect of approach- 
ing day, when Abe startled them by emerging 
from the shadows. 

“ Lawd ! Lawd ! ” he panted, “ dat man pretty 
nigh scared de life out o’ me drappin’ in folks’ 
houses dis time o’ night to know ef I seed any 
’spicious characters roamin’ roun’ hyuh. Dat 
ain’t no way to ’have, nohow. But I sutny is 
glad you chillun is safe. I was feared dat man 
had toted you off somewhere, tooth an’ nail.” 

It was several minutes before the old man was 
calm enough to hear the hoys’ story, punctuating 
it with interjections and gloomy suppositions of 
every kind. 

When he was finally persuaded to go back to 
his cabin in view of the promise of security that 
came with the first faint trace of dawn in the 
east, Happy volunteered to investigate the 
launch and the guns, and on his return with the 


132 The Boy Scouts of the Air 

latter and a report that the former was undis- 
turbed, Dinks and Headlight oomposed them- 
selves tQ sleep and were soon breathing heavily. 

Penny could not sleep on account of the start 
he had had, while Happy was too busy revolving 
his plans to drop off again. 

After a silence of many minutes, during which 
the pink glow had been slowly mounting from the 
horizon over the tree tops, he asked: “ ’Sleep, 
Penny? ” 

‘ ‘ Naw, my eyes are popped,” returned Penny. 
“ I’m wake for keeps. That was a swell trick of 
ours, going to sleep all of us without a sentry in 
this place, an’ letting a buneh of hoboes walk off 
with our guns from under our noses. They might 
have cut our throats and we’d never have 
known the difference.” 

This last surmise did not sound so alarming 
now that the morning light was growing. 

“ Say, Penny, are you game? ” asked Happy. 

“ What about? ” 

“ Remember what you said yesterday? You’re 
with me. Let’s take the canoe and do a little 
scouting. ’ ’ 

“ S’pose we run across those fellows? ” 


A Midnight Awakening 


133 


“ That’s all right. They can’t do anything 
more than they have done. What are you soared 
of them for? ” 

“ But the fellow they’re chasing — how ’bout 
him? ” 

“ That’s the big idea. We may cheat ’em out 
of their game.” 

44 You are talking bull,” objected Penny. 

Happy, after considerable whispered argu- 
ment, persuaded Penny that he was not talking 
bull, and finally got his companion’s courage to 
the sticking point. 

u How ’bout the other fellows? Goin’ to ’wake 
them? ” asked the less courageous of the two. 

“ What’s the use? We can’t take any more 
in the shell, and we’d just start ’em guessing. 
They’d say we all ought to wait for Buck. We’ve 
got plenty of time to scout around before Buck 
gets in. We can take till two o’clock if we want 
to. I ’ve got an idea. I ’ll scribble a note and pin 
it on to the seat of Dinks’ breeches with a briar. 
If he don’t feel it, Headlight will see it.” 

Whereupon Happy, full of his scheme, which 
had deeper roots than he had disclosed, urged his 
friend to a hurried toilet. As they might have to 


134 The Boy Scouts of the Air 

wade about in the Swamp a bit, rubber boots took 
the place of their usual shoes and puttees, water- 
proof match-safes were stowed away, field glasses 
secured for possible reconnoitering, and in their 
pockets they crammed some of the remnants of 
the supper of the night before and took in ad- 
dition canned stuff and crackers to put in the 
canoe for their lunch. All of these preparations 
were completed without disturbing their com- 
panions and as the light grew to sufficient bright- 
ness to let them navigate without difficulty, they 
took their seats in the shell, pushed off and be- 
gan to paddle briskly up the Lake close to the 
shore to avoid detection. 


CHAPTER XII 


THE ENCOUNTER ON THE LAKE 

“ Think there’s any danger of rain? ” asked 
Penny, as he noted the misty look of the sky 
and felt a greater sultriness in the air than had 
been apparent for many days. 

“ Naw,” returned Happy emphatically, “ and 
s’pose it does rain, we ain’t sugar, are we? ” 

“ How far do you expect to go? ” 

“ That depends. I’ve got a hunch we’re going 
to see something. Just trust your old uncle and 
sit tight. But gee! this is slow work compared 
to air riding. Oh, boy! I can feel thrills run- 
ning up and down my backbone right this 
minute. If I just had my hand on the rod of 
that flivver I’d scoot over these treetops and get 
to Long Ridge in a jiffy.” 

“ You think that slacker’s at Long Ridge? ” 

“ No thinks about it. I know it.” 

“ You know a lot of things. You’re a wiz, 
you are.” 


135 


136 The Boy Scouts of the Air 

44 Oh, I’m just a natural bom Sherlock Holmes. 
What are those guys that jumped on us last night 
doing if they’re not crooks themselves? Why, 
they’re after the slacker. What did they hand us 
all that hot air about danger for and tell us to 
clear out? Plain as the nose on your phiz. They 
don’t want to run the risk of our nabbing their 
game and getting the reward. Where is that 
slacker hiding? At Long Ridge. Do they know 
it? No, but we do. See? ” 

4 4 You ain’t going to try to get to that place, 
are you? ” asked Penny. 

44 We’ve got to find the way there first, and 
I’m going to come pretty near finding it, believe 
me.” 

44 Even if we do get there, s’pose we can 
handle him? ” 

44 Sure, Mike. Don’t you know slackers are 
gun-shy? That’s the reason they are slackers. 
You’ve got a rifle and I’ve got one, and if two 
husky kids like us can’t run down one slacker, 
we better take down the scout sign.” 

On account of the growing heat, paddling was 
not such easy work as it had been two days be- 
fore. At times they would let the canoe float 


The Encounter on the Lake 


137 


while they munched away at their scrap break- 
fast and, with eager eye, scanned their surround- 
ings. Besides their own animated conversation, 
no sound broke the solitude except the splash of 
a fish or the caw! caw! of a crow. An uncanny 
stillness shrouded the wild scenery of the Great 
Dismal Swamp. 

The shores were ragged with roots and stumps 
made bare by the eternal washing of the waters 
— a network of gnarled trunks and intertwined 
fibres, bleached and dry as the bones of a skele- 
ton and sheltering no life but that of the blue 
lizard and red-throated moccasin. In the back- 
ground, firm in the soft quagmire, stood juniper 
trees supported by long tap-roots, and beneath 
them grew ferns, reeds, and myriads of shrubs, 
shut out from the sunlight by the dense foliage 
overhead. 

As the canoe moved further on, the boys saw 
tangled beds of white cedar roots, overgrown by 
shrubs and vines not higher than a man’s head, 
making expanses known to the swampers as 
“ lights,” because one could stand on a stump 
and overlook the growth for long distances in 
all directions. Here and there in these 4 4 lights ” 


138 The Boy Scouts of the Air 

rose clumps of pine trees growing from oases of 
higher ground. 

After several hours of paddling, with no single 
exciting event to break the monotony, even the 
expectant Happy was almost tempted to suggest 
a return. The sun had broken through the mists 
and was pouring down a sweltering heat. They 
were close to a projecting tongue of higher 
ground covered with bushes. 

“ I*d like to get a pop at a bear, anyhow,’ ’ 
sighed Happy. ‘ ‘ Tough luck not to see a darned 
thing and though we must be somewhere off that 
open space I spied from the plane, there’s no- 
where along here a dog could put his foot on. 
Give me the glasses and let’s take a look.” 

Penny handed over a pair of field glasses, and 
Happy applied them to his eyes, scanning the 
horizon in every direction. 

“ Not a blamed thing — launch or any tiling — 
in sight,” he announced. 

“ Well, let’s rest and have a little feed,” sug- 
gested Penny. 

They paddled the canoe to a spot under the 
overhanging branches of a gum tree that stood 
at the tip of a peninsula. On the other side of 


139 


The Encounter on the Lake 

this tongue of swamp land was a considerable 
canebrake, bordering a kind of cove. 

44 That ought to be a good place for bears,” 
declared Happy, pointing to the thicket. 44 And 
speaking of bears, you wasn’t around when old 
Abe told that yarn yesterday. Want to bear 
it? ” 

Penny, deftly peeling a boiled egg, declared 
bis willingness to be entertained. 

44 Well, Abe said a swamp band and some 
other niggers were camping on the shore of the 
Lake when he — that is, the one be was telling 
about — wandered off one day with bis dog and 
one of these old-fashioned muzzle-loading mus- 
kets, and all of a sudden be ran across a couple 
of bear cubs tramping through the reeds. What’s 
the matter? ” 

This question was not part of the story, but 
was directed at Penny, who bad started and 
pricked up bis ears. 

44 I thought I beard something,” be declared 
in a low tone. 4 4 Listen.” 

Happy listened intently, but heard nothing. 

44 Penny, your head is full of noises. You 
ought to wash your ears better,” he said im- 


140 The Boy Scouts of the Air 

patiently. u Lemme finish my story. Two bear 
cubs came a-trotting along through the reeds. 
The man’s little runt of a dog started to barking 
like the mischief and made the little bears run 
up a tree. The darky came up and tried to 
shoot, but the cap on his old gun wouldn’t ex- 
plode. Then he looked around, and here came 
the old mother bear through the cane brakes to 
the rescue and the old coon, since he didn’t have 
anything to defend himself with, climbed up a 
tree himself. What’s the matter now? ” 

Again Penny had shown signs of interested 
attention in the distance rather than in the story. 

“ Plague take your skin, hearing things 
again? ” Nevertheless, Happy paused to listen 
too, and whispered, “ I b’lieve you did hear 
something. ’ ’ 

There was a faint sound of rustling that 
reached his ears. In a few moments there was 
silence again, so Happy, insisting the sound 
came from some bird or small beast, proceeded 
with his tale. 

4 4 Here came the she bear full speed for the 
darky and right up the tree, climbing to beat 
the band, the darky, a-yelllng at the top of his 


The Encounter on the Lake 


141 


voice for help. When the bear was pretty near 
on him, he let his big foot fly back with so much 
pep he sent the bear sprawling back to the 
ground. But she started to the attack again and 
might have gotten him right this time if his 
pals hadn’t come up and shot — ” 

Happy stopped short and listened. He too 
had heard a distinct sopping of mud under a 
foot and a brushing sound as of a form passing 
through the cane brake. 

“ Get your rifle, quick! ” he whispered, as he 
reached for his own. “ Slip down on your 
stomach and watch, and keep quiet. I b’lieve 
we’ll get one yet.” 

“ See anything! ” asked Penny in a whisper 
after they had been watching from their covert 
and listening to the gradually increasing sound, 
interrupted at intervals. 

“ Hush, will you? ” Happy whispered back. 
“ It may not be a bear.” 

In a moment or two the watchers were startled 
to see emerge from the reeds some two hundred 
feet away a slinking form. It was a man dressed 
in a blue jeans shirt with rough trousers tucked 
into rubber boots. Under his battered felt hat 


142 


The Boy Scouts of the Air 


gleamed shifting eyes above a tangle of reddish 
whiskers. The fact that he was apparently un- 
armed lessened the alarm of the two boys, hut 
they ducked their heads and drew themselves in 
to their smallest dimensions. The strange crea- 
ture first looked in the direction of the canoe, 
but, seemingly reassured in that quarter, he 
scanned the waters and distant shores of the 
Lake and in a few minutes his steps were heard 
retreating. 

After the boys had convinced themselves that 
the man’s footsteps were departing, they ven- 
tured to peer through the protecting foliage but 
still held their breath and uttered no word. Their 
suspense was of short duration, however, for 
five minutes later the form again cautiously put 
aside the reeds and stood on the water’s edge 
some fifty feet from the point of his first appear- 
ance. Near him, the juniper knees and the trees 
growing out of the water formed a sort of tiny 
sheltered haven. Stepping cautiously into the 
shallow basin, he waded along till he came to 
what appeared to be a clump of overhanging 
bushes but, as his hands set busily to work and 
pulled aside what turned out to be a clever 


The Encounter on the Lake 


143 


camouflage, a dilapidated rowboat was revealed. 

Removing the chain from over a cypress knee 
he softly placed it in the boat to avoid any clank- 
ing and then crawled aboard himself. As the 
craft was pushed into the more open water and 
the oars were cautiously fitted to the oarlocks, 
the lads were in an agony of suspense as to 
which direction he would decide to take but, to 
their infinite relief, he promptly weighed on his 
right oar, and the boat’s prow turned away from 
their hiding place. 

Perhaps ten minutes of watching the depart- 
ing stranger passed before the boys ventured to 
speak. Though he now had his back to them, he 
would, from time to time, rest on his oars and 
gaze back at his point of departure. 

“ Gee whillikins! I was scared,” said Penny 
with a deep sigh, when the man was far out of 
earshot. “ Gosh! he had a villainous face.” 

“ Who in the mischief do you reckon that 
pirate can be? ” asked Happy in a whisper. 

“ Maybe he’s the slacker,” came back from 
Penny. 

“ Slacker! That slacker was advertised as a 
young guy. That cuss is forty years anyhow.” 


144 


The Boy Scouts of the Air 


“ But he sure must be a crook from the way 
he spied around.” 

“ There you’re right,” declared Happy with 
eyes still fixed on the retreating figure. “ One 
thing’s certain — he’s not one of the two who 
jumped us last night, and he’s not the other fel- 
low who quit the launch below Deep Creek. 
What I want to know is, who is he? ” 

“ Maybe we’ll find out at Wailaceton. Let’s 
paddle on hack as fast as we can,” urged Penny. 

“ Nothing doing,” announced Happy, showing 
not the slightest inclination to take his paddle, 
“ not while I can keep an eye on that fish over 
there. ’ ’ 

Despite Penny’s continued protests, he con- 
tinued to gaze on the distant boat as it closely 
hugged the shore. Suddenly he exclaimed: 

“ Great Gee! See that? ” His pointed finger 
directed his companion’s gaze to a second boat 
putting out swiftly from an inlet that the first 
had just left behind. 4 4 The glasses, quick! ” 

“ There are three in it,” said Penny breath- 
lessly, “ and one of them’s got a gun. Lemme 
have the glasses, will you? ” 

But Happy held on firmly to the field glasses 


The Encounter on the Lake 


145 


that he had snatched from Penny’s hand, and 
the latter resigned himself to straining his naked 
eyes. 

The new boat was speeding nnder the exer- 
tions of the two rowers, while the third man 
stood with a gun menacing the lone figure in the 
boat ahead. 

“ They’ll get him! ” announced Happy ex- 
citedly. 1 1 Ho! ho! It’s three to one. He hasn’t 
got a chance.” 

In fact, the overhauling was but the work of 
a few moments. 

“ Penny! ” announced Happy to the other, 
whose hands were itching to get hold of the 
glasses, “ that fellow with the pistol is the one 
who disappeared from the launch. I recognize 
him for sure. The men rowing are niggers.” 

For the benefit of Penny he continued to com- 
ment on the pantomime he was witnessing. After 
some weak resistance, the red-bearded man had 
surrendered. He held out his hands as the pur- 
suer swung alongside, was promptly handcuffed 
and forced to a seat in the front of his captors’ 
craft. His own rowboat was taken in tow. The 
rowers took their places. The boat turned and 


146 The Boy Scouts of the Air 

appeared to be making for the very spot where 
the boys lay hidden, but before long changed its 
direction and glided on towards the lower end of 
the Lake. Before the change of direction was 
made, however, there seemed to be a lively dis- 
pute going on between captor and captive. It 
was clear the former was making some demands 
the substance of which the lads could not catch. 
But they did hear distinctly over the interven- 
ing space a fierce shout from the red-bearded 
man: 

“ Didn’t I tell you I ain’t done nothin’? I 
don’t know nothin’ and you won’t get nothin’ 
out of me till the crack of doom.” 

“ Say, Hap,” cried Penny, as the boats grew 
smaller in the distance and no further sounds 
reached their ears, “ we ought to have hailed 
that fellow and let him know what we’d seen.” 

“ You’re a nut,” shot back Happy. “ How do 
we know what those other fellows are. We don’t 
mix up in that bunch. But I tell you what I’m 
going to do. I’m- going to hunt around where 
that red bird came out. He wasn’t walking on 
water, that’s a sure thing; and I tell you what, 
I bet he came straight from Long Ridge.” 


The Encounter on the Lake 


147 


Penny remonstrated and pointed to the dark 
clouds rolling up from the west as an argument 
against further loitering, but Happy was too 
keen on his object to yield at this point. So they 
paddled across the little inlet and stepped out 
onto the boggy ground of the cane brake near the 
point from which they had seen the stranger 
emerge. 


CHAPTER XIII 


THE TRAPPERS TRAPPED 

“ Here are his marks, all right/ ’ cried Happy, 
noting the deep boot-prints in the spongy ground. 
“ Come on, let’s follow ’em through the reeds 
and I lay we’ll run into some sort of trail in the 
woods.” 

He nodded in the direction of the forest, loom- 
ing up several hundred feet beyond. 

4 4 Been this way more’n once,” detected 
Penny. 

“ Flocks of footprints,” confirmed Happy. 
“ Lucky it hasn’t rained lately or we’d sink clean 
out of sight in this tanglefoot.” 

“ I swear I believe we’re going to get it 
to-day,” prophesied Penny, scanning the sky. 
“ Sure we’ll have time to get back before we get 
caught? ” 

“ Forget it! Better look where you are going. 
Ah, there, snakes! ” 

As Happy pointed sharply at the ground in 
143 


The Trappers Trapped 


149 


front of Penny’s feet tlie latter’s eyes bulged 
and he bounded up like a frightened rabbit. 

44 Plague take your hide! ” he exclaimed when 
he heard Happy’s betraying laugh. 44 What did 
you do that for? ” 

44 Just for fun. Wanted to make you shift 
your eyes oft that sky and look where you are 
going. Don’t know what sort of Indians may be 
skulking around in this jungle.” 

The last sentence he whispered in so mysterious 
a tone that Penny instantly focused his eyes on 
the reeds in front and held his rifle advanced and 
ready for action. 

44 Pretty close now,” proclaimed the leader 
after the pair had ploughed along for fifteen 
minutes. “The tracks are making straight for 
that juniper.” 

Shortly after, they floundered out of the marsh 
to a solid footing of matted cypress and juniper 
roots, close to a tunnel of vegetation that marked 
the entrance to a forest road. 

44 What did I tell you? ” said Happy. 44 One 
of those bump-the-bumps roads, all right. Beaut, 
ain’t it? ” 

It was, indeed, the ghost of a corduroy road, 


150 The Boy Scouts of the Air 

one of those swamp bridges constructed by the 
easy engineering process of placing logs side by 
side on the quagmire to afford a passage to the 
timberman’s mule teams. This one was in the 
last stages of decay. In places, the puncheons, 
as the log ties are called, had vanished from sight 
and the way was broken by pools of dark, scum- 
covered water. 

“ Don’t get me into that rotten hole,” affirmed 
Penny, with disgust. “ Not for mine! ” 

“ Too late to get cold feet, old scout,” said 
Happy, moving boldly ahead, and setting foot 
on the first floating puncheon. “ Can’t go back 
to camp and tell the other fellows we got scared 
off by a little muddy water. If that Old Red 
came this way, I reckon we’ve got better jumpers 
than he has. Come on! Hop along! ” 

Penny, still muttering objections, followed his 
leader along the forbidding way. 

“ They say Washington surveyed through this 
juicy Swamp,” said Happy, gazing around with 
curious interest. “ Bet he was monarch of all 
he surveyed here, anyhow.” 

“ I get you. Bum pun,” deprecated Penny. 
u Wish I had Edith along. He might start 


The Trappers Trapped 


151 


something. Gee! It would he swell to have a 
deer’s head with antlers to hang up'at home. Or 
I wouldn’t kick at a stuffed bald eagle,” rumi- 
nated Happy. 

Neither woods nor sky yielded a view of any 
denizens of the wilds, as the pair pushed on their 
perilous way until they found themselves in the 
very heart of the Swamp. From the dark 
stretches of water on either hand protruded de- 
caying branches and trunks of great trees, while 
below the surface the wood appeared in a per- 
fect state of preservation. In this loose soil, the 
trees are often brought down in windrows, and 
in the course of time they sink from sight. Only 
the sap-wood, two or three inches thick, falls 
away while the rest is preserved by the juniper 
water, and when dug out may be worked into 
excellent shingles. 

“ There’s the peat factory running,” ex- 
plained Happy, pointing to some of these sub- 
merged trees. 

The deeper the lads plunged into the forest, 
the more painfully slow was their progress. 
More than an hour was consumed in covering the 
first half mile. In some places it was necessary 


152 The Boy Scouts of the Air 

to wade knee-deep through the mire and they had 
the unpleasant sensation of feeling muddy water 
flooding over their boot tops. Unexpectedly, an 
incident developed that repaid all their exertions. 
They were passing some tangled undergrowth 
when a queer sound brought them to a sudden 
halt. Happy promptly seized Penny’s arm and 
drew him off the corduroy road and along the 
roots of a big gum tree to a hiding place behind 
its trunk. There they kept as still as two hares 
in a hole, listening to the commotion in the 
thicket. 

“ What is it? ” whispered Penny anxiously, 
his heart throbbing. 

“ Hush! Don’t talk! ” came back from Happy, 
in a low tone, as he ventured to peek from am- 
bush. A thrill passed through his frame as he 
saw a hairy muzzle thrust from the bushes and 
two red eyes peering. In a moment more a 
medium sized black bear, sniffing the air sus- 
piciously, swung out onto the road. He evidently 
had enemies on his brute mind. 

Both boys crouched down. 

“It’s a bear! ” gasped Happy, so excited he 
came near dropping his gun. Penny’s first wild 


The Trappers Trapped 


153 


impulse was to try to seize the lowest branch 
above him, though it was many feet overhead. 

“ Stiffen up, there,” continued Happy. “ Get 
your gun ready and plump him from the other 
side of the tree as soon as you hear me shoot . 1 7 

Summoning up all his courage, the speaker 
raised his rifle to position, took deliberate aim at 
the blood-shot eyes of the beast, and fired. With 
a wild growl of pain the bear swayed forward 
and then fell back on his haunches, his forepaws 
beating the air convulsively. 

“Now, Penny, swat him before he gets up 
again,” panted Happy. 

For answer there was a sharp report from 
the rifle of the second boy, who completely forgot 
his nerves in the excitement of the moment. The 
bear collapsed in a heap and after a few more 
twitching movements lay apparently lifeless. 
With a wild whoop the two huntsmen bounded 
forward to inspect their handiwork, standing at 
a respectful distance, however, until the glazing 
eyes assured them that the bear was beyond the 
possibility of doing any further damage. 

“ It was your shot that did it,” conceded 
Penny, as Happy bent over to examine more 


154 The Boy Scouts of the Air 

closely the bleeding hole near the creature’s right 
eye. 

“ Maybe it was,” allowed Happy, “ but you 
put him out of his misery anyhow. You’re no 
slouch as a marksman, that’s a sure thing. The 
fellows will never call you tenderfoot again, or 
my name’s not Happy Chandler. By criminy, 
won’t this make some sensation when we get 
back? ” 

“ How are we going to get him home? ” ques- 
tioned Penny, prodding the carcass with his foot. 
“ How ’bout fastening his paws together and 
running a pole through? ” 

“ That wouldn’t get us anywhere. No room in 
the canoe, and then we couldn’t haul him through 
all this mud by ourselves. I tell you what. 
We’ll drag him over here in the bushes and hide 
him till we can get help to get him home. But, 
say, let’s cut off the forepaws as trophies to 
prove to the fellows we’re not talking bull. They 
won’t believe us if we don’t. I can see the way 
Dinks and Headlight will look, right now.” 

It was agreed, however, that securing the 
trophies should be put off till their return from 
Long Ridge. So, after feasting their eyes a 


The Trappers Trapped 


155 


while longer on their prize, they proceeded to 
carry out the plan of secreting it. So absorbed 
were they in this occupation and in lively discus- 
sions of their prowess they scarcely noticed the 
growing gloom of the woods and the trees sway- 
ing in a rising wind. Suddenly an ominous 
rumble fell upon their ears. 

“ Thunder! ” exclaimed Happy, looking up 
quickly. “ Penny, sure as you’re living there’s 
a big storm coming.” 

“ What did I tell you? Hurry, let’s beat it 
back to the Lake as fast as we can.” 

He started off in his excitement. 

“ Wait, rube! ” commanded the other. “ You 
know we can’t make that in less than two hours.” 

“ Well, what are we going to do? We’ll get 
drowned in this place.” 

“ We’re going to make Long Ridge,” an- 
nounced Happy, coolly. u We are bound to be 
near it. Wait, I’ll skin up this old gum, and see 
if I can’t spy it. " 

Suiting the action to the word, he selected a 
tall tree, the low branches of which furnished a 
ready ladder and was soon nimbly mounting to 
the highest fork, amid branches now sVept vio- 


156 


The Boy Scouts of the Air 


lently by tne ever increasing wind. Great drops 
of rain were beginning to fall and the roll of 
thunder was louder and more threatening. 

44 I see it,” shouted the boy aloft. 44 Right on 
it. Not ten minutes away.” 

In a few moments he was on the corduroy once 
more, urging on his companion. 

44 We’ll beat the storm yet,” he promised. 
But between the waters from above and those 
underfoot the going was no picnic. When they 
had floundered on to a point where the woods 
began to thin and, through a vista, they could see 
the open space ahead, the storm burst with such 
fury that, drenched to the skin and anxious about 
the condition of their rifles, they were forced to 
huddle close to a great tree to wait for a let-up in 
the downpour before pushing on to their objec- 
tive. 

A terrific crash sent echoes hurtling through 
the forest, and a sharp ripping sound shot 
tremors down the backs of the refugees. 

44 Struck right near us! ” panted Penny, press- 
ing closer to his companion. 

44 Sure did! ” returned Happy as soon as he 
could swallow a lump that had risen in his throat. 


The Trappers Trapped 


157 


“ Thought it got us. My heart jumped clean up 
to the attic/ ’ 

For half an hour, the fierce bombardment con- 
tinued while the boys stuck close to the more 
sheltered side of their tree. Then came a per- 
ceptible lull. 

1 i Great Stars and Stripes ! ” exclaimed Happy. 
* ‘ Feel like I ’d been through a battle — right un- 
der a tree, the worse place we could get. Now 
for a dash to that cabin. Hustle! ” 

Through the blinding rain the pair plunged 
along the last hundred feet of mire, past the last 
sheltering tree and the fringe of the jungle, and 
broke into a stumbling run over the weed-grown 
path that led to a mud-chinked log cabin. At a 
few yards from the gaping doorway they slowed 
up and crept cautiously with guns advanced. 
Very stealthily Happy stepped to one side and 
peered around the frame work into the dark 
interior. 

“ Coast clear! ” he announced in a tone of 
relief and, closely followed by the other lad, 
bounded in out of the flood. 

When Penny struck one of the matches from 
his waterproof safe, the place resolved itself into 


158 


The Boy Scouts of the Air 


a filthy hovel of one room, hare of furniture. The 
floor was littered with rags and broken bottles. 
Two windows, or rather square openings in the 
log walls, were innocent of sash or windowpanes 
and the shutters, securely nailed from without, 
resisted all efforts to pry them open. 

“ So this is that beautiful home of Long 
Ridge,” remarked Happy, after the pair had 
made a thorough inspection of the surroundings. 
4 4 1 reckon those fawns and other cute 
beasties, as Uncle Abe calls them, got one sniff 
of this den and took to the woods for keeps. By 
Golly, I don’t believe that Red Fox we saw in the 
reeds would spend a night in this hole.” 

44 Swell place for a rich slacker to hang out 
in,” joked Penny, slyly. 44 He’s out calling, I 
s’pose.” 

44 I resign,” conceded Happy. 44 ’Fraid I was 
off. Anyhow, we’ve had an adventure you read 
about and bagged a bear and that's glory enough 
for one rainy day, eh, kiddo? But let’s hang 
ourselves up to dry.” 

Feeling secure for the time being, the boys 
stacked their guns in a comer, proceeded to strip 
off their clothes, wring and then suspend them 


The Trappers Trapped 


159 


from rusty nails discovered on the wall for such 
drying as the humid atmosphere would permit. 
Then in a state of nature and dejection they 
selected the most sheltered spot of the mucky 
floor, seated themselves on two boxes, with feet 
resting on their overturned boots, to protect their 
soles from the filth. 

44 Hadn't we better close the door," suggested 
Penny, as a shift in the wind brought in a sheet 
of rain. 

44 Not on your life. I'd rather drown than be 
as — what do you call it? — asphyxiated. Didn't 
squeeze any chow out of your pants, did you? 
I'm so hungry I could gnaw shingles." 

44 We'll be buried under that sort of grub if 
the rain keeps pouring down through those 
holes," encouraged Penny, glancing at the porous 
roof. 

44 We should worry ! " said Happy in a tone 
of optimism he scarcely felt. 44 We can fast a 
few hours without croaking. The storm will let 
up and we'll get hack to camp before night and 
oh, boy! The way I'm going to clean up fodder 
would make a whale's mouth water." 

Just at the moment when he was chattering in 


160 


The Boy Scouts of the Air 


his most cheerful strain, the thought flashed on 
him that, even if they did get back to the lake 
shore, the canoe might he gone, but he didn’t say 
it aloud in order not to increase Penny’s anxiety. 

Suddenly, glancing in the direction of the door, 
he jumped up as if he had been shot, drawing an 
exclamation of terror from Penny as his eyes 
too sprang in the same direction. A great fist 
had crossed the aperture, seized the hasp, and 
jerked the door violently to and, before the two 
lads could recover from their first consternation, 
there was a sharp click as of a padlock snapped, 
then heavy footfalls splashing the muddy ground 
along the front of the cabin. Too terrified to 
utter a yell, the boys stood transfixed in the dark- 
ness as the same terrible thought flashed through 
each mind. They were prisoners ! 


CHAPTER XIV 


MISSING 

“ Oh, Headlight, wake up quick! ” called Dinks 
shaking his still sleeping companion, about two 
hours after the explorers had set out on their 
adventure. 

“ Where are Happy and Penny? ” 

It required several more vigorous shakes to 
stir the sleeper’s eyes into a sleepy stare. 

“ I say,” insisted Dinks, “ look here, Penny 
and Happy ain’t in their bunks.” 

A sudden flash of memory of the events of 
the night startled Headlight into full conscious- 
ness. 

“ What’s that? ” he asked sitting up. “ Who’s 
gone? ” 

“ Wake up, will you? ” 

“ Golly Moses! Don’t reckon those fellows 
sneaked back and hooked ’em, do you? ” pro- 
pounded Headlight, with a tinge of uneasiness 
in his voice. 


161 


162 The Boy Scouts of the Air 

“ Search me! Maybe they’re down at the 
Lake.” 

“ Hello! What’s that? ” Headlight broke out 
as his roving eye fell on a white object attached 
to his trousers, hanging from a prong of the 
tent pole. 

Under Dinks’ inquisitive gaze, he reached for 
his garment, snatched off the paper and read it, 
with a scowl. 

“ Well, what do you think of that! ” he com- 
mented, passing the note on to the other. “ Put 
one over on us. Can you beat it? And using 
my pants, for a billboard. I’ll fix them all right, 
all right.” 

“ Doggone if we’ll worry,” returned Dinks as 
he tossed the paper aside after scanning it. 
“ Can’t make me mad. We’ll work the rabbit’s 
foot on them and go off fishing.” 

“ Suits me,” agreed Headlight. 

Their plans of vengeance arranged, the pair 
proceeded to prepare for their morning plunge 
with which not even the fear of snakes could in- 
terfere. With their towels, they gained the lake 
shore and after vainly exploring the waters with 
their eyes for a sight of the truant boys, took a 


Missing 163 

cautious dip, keeping a sharp lookout for unwel- 
come reptiles. 

“ There’s a redheaded sucker now! ” an- 
nounced Headlight, when they stood once more 
on the log wharf. “ If I had an oyster shell I 
bet I could chunk his sassy head off.” 

“ Oyster shell! ” laughed Dinks. “ Buck says 
you have to go down thirty feet for them in these 
diggings to a place that used to be the sea bot- 
tom a million years ago. You find regular whales 
there, bigger than any in Lynn Haven, and 
there’s coral and all sorts of sea junk. But up 
here, nothing harder than a pine knot, unless 
it’s your head or one of those Indian arrows old 
Abraham Lamentations swore he ploughed up.” 

After a little sparring as to who was the big- 
ger bonehead, the boys turned back to dress and 
from their tent saw old Abe’s form framed in 
the cabin doorway. 

4 4 Sure is glad to see you chillum, ’ ’ he shouted 
out. “ I was feared dem skip-doctors might a 
come back and got dere claws on you. ’ ’ 

“ Skip-doctors! ” Dinks called back. “ What’s 
skip-doctors? ” 

“ Law! Don’t you know what skip-doctors is? 


164 


The Boy Scouts of the Air 


Dey’s dem folks what sneaks roun’ on gumshoes 
up ’hind folks and grabs ’em to tote ’em off and 
cut ’em up fer to see how dey insides is workin’. 
I sho’ do think dat man las’ night war one o’ 
dem critters and I think so yit. ’Twar my rabbit 
foot what save me.” Then, noting the absence 
of Happy and Penny, he asked uneasily, “ Whar 
dem other two what was wid you-all? ” 

The boys had some difficulty persuading the 
old man that their missing friends had left word 
of themselves and had not fallen victims to a 
second trip of the mysterious strangers. 

“ Ef my ole ’oman don’t come back to-day 
like she promised,” said Uncle Abe, “ I ain’t 
goin’ to stay hyuh another night by mysef for 
nobody, no, suh, I ain’t.” 

After dressing, the boys prepared and ate a 
savory breakfast of bacon and eggs, washed down 
with very respectable coffee in tin cups, and then 
set out in the launch on the expedition they had 
planned to kill the time until the whirr of Buck’s 
motor should give notice that he was on the way 
to "Wallaceton. After an exploration of the lake 
shore opposite Abe’s island they headed back to 
a place not far from the entrance to the Ditch — 


Missing 


165 


a spot highly recommended by Abe as prime fish- 
ing grounds — hut whether their lively conversa- 
tion on aviation or the weather had a deterring 
effect on the fish, the fact remains that an hour’s 
effort resulted in nothing more than two or three 
little perch. 

“ Black clouds,” noted Headlight finally. 
‘ ‘ Gosh I hope a storm won’t keep Buck from 
starting. ’ ’ 

“ Oh, it’ll he over before he’s ready, even if 
we do have a squall.” 

“ Glad we’re near town anyhow! ” rejoiced 
Headlight. “ And I bet this makes those bold 
mutts beat it back in a jiffy.” 

“ Look there comes the canoe now, I do be- 
lieve,” announced Dinks as a result of a keen 
inspection of the far waters. 

“ Where? Oh, I see,” said Headlight, shading 
his eyes with his hand, and then after some 
moment’s further watching he added: “ Not a 
canoe. Too broad. It’s a rowboat.” 

With running comments they watched on until 
the oncoming craft took on distinct outlines, and 
the forms of the crew could be vaguely seen. 

“ Not those fellows who scared us up last 


166 The Boy Scouts of the Air 

night, is it? ” asked Headlight, somewhat 
anxiously. 

In ten minutes the boat had drawn sufficiently' 
close to settle the question. 

“ By Jiminy! Headlight, it*s that fellow who 
skipped from the launch, and he’s got a pistol.” 

“ And that other guy is tied! Gee! he looks 
villainous! Hadn’t we better make tracks out of 
here? ” 

But as the villainous individual was evidently 
handcuffed, and as a retreat by the boys at this 
moment might have aroused the 'other man to 
unpleasant procedure, the two lads decided to 
stay where they were and await results. 

“ Haven’t seen two fellows in a canoe, have 
you? ” asked Dinks, in a friendly tone as soon 
as the strange boat was in hailing distance. At 
a word from the man with the pistol, the negroes 
raised their oars and let the boat drift. 

“ No,” came back the reply not over gruffly, 
“ haven’t seen any canoe. And if you belong to 
that camping bunch, you better take the advice 
you got last night and clear out right away. 
These woods are no place for boys nowadays. 
You see this bird here? ” He nodded at his glar~ 


Missing 


167 


in g prisoner. “ More like him wandering loose. 
So get away as quick as you can beat it.” 

“ Just waiting for our scoutmaster. Going 
to-day,” promised Headlight, “ but the other 
fellow’s chased off somewhere and we can’t find » 
’em. Never happen to have heard of a place 
called Long Eidge over there somewhere, did 
you? ” He pointed vaguely up the Lake. 

“ Never did,” returned the man, looking 
sharply at the prisoner, “ but my friend here 
has, I believe.” 

A startled look came into the wild eyes of the 
red-bearded man as he turned them instinctively 
in the direction indicated by the boy. 

“ Don’t know nothin’ ’bout such a place,” he 
growled. 

“ How did you hear of what did you call it? 
Long Eidge? ” the man with the automatic asked 
Headlight. 

“ One of the fellows went up in an airplane 
from Wallaceton and saw it just back from the 
Lake, and we’re afraid he’s tried to get there.” 

“ He did, did he? ” returned the man, with 
interest evidently growing and studying with 
keen eye his prisoner’s face. “ Say, boys, when 


168 The Boy Scouts of the Air 

your friend gets back, tell him I’ll drop over. 
Looks like a storm coming and I want to get tbis 
bird under cover.” 

At a word of command from the speaker, the 
black men dipped their oars once more and the 
rowboat sped off straight for the Ditch. 

“ Say, Headlight, how do you figure it out! ” 
asked Dinks, when a comfortable distance sepa- 
rated the two boats. 

“ Crooks around, one thing sure. Notice the 
way that fellow looked when I said Long Bidge? 
S’pose those fools have tried to hike to that 
place and that something’s happened to them? 
Doggone! I wish Buck was here.” 

“ What do you say we better do? ” 

Headlight’s eyes ranged the distant waters, 
now growing more dark and sullen looking under 
the surging storm-clouds. 

“ Nowhere in sight yet. We’ve got to scout 
around and look for ’em. No good staying 
here.” 

The engine was started and the launch headed' 
westward. After they had gone a couple of miles 
without seeing any trace of the wanderers the 
storm was full upon them. Under the heavy wind 


Missing 


169 


the usually placid water was stirred into choppy 
waves. There was but one thing to do — turn 
back and make for safety to save their engine 
from damage or perhaps to avoid a fate still 
worse. By the hardest efforts, they made the 
island once more, protected the launch as best 
they could from the perils of waves and rain 
and, scurrying past the collapsed tent, sought 
refuge from the elements in Abe’s cabin. 


CHAPTER XV 


A NIGHT OF ANXIETY 

All afternoon tlie rain poured, and gloomy 
apprehensions as to their companions ’ fate filled 
the minds of Abe’s refugees in spite of the old 
man’s efforts to cheer them up. 

“ Dem boys is jus’ as snug as a bug in a rug,” 
he consoled. “ Dey’s settin’ in some holluh tree, 
des a-grinnin’ an’ playin’ ’possum.” 

It was not so much the storm that was to be 
feared, thought Dinks and Headlight, as it was 
the human beasts who might be ranging the 
woods. 

Towards nightfall the rain held up, and while 
hope of Buck’s appearing must be dismissed for 
that night the lads were seized with a desire to 
get to Wallaceton and enlist the aid and counsel 
of Mr. Willis. If the missing boys should turn 
up they were to be brought by Abe’s rowboat 
straight to Wallaceton, no matter what the hour 
of the night. So the pair assured themselves 

170 


A Night of Anxiety 


171 


that the engine of the Carrie Call had been per- 
fectly protected by the canvas, bailed ont what 
water had collected in the bottom of the boat 
and, with the assistance of a lantern, felt their 
way through the Ditch and down the short stretch 
of canal to their destination. In their anxious 
state of mind, every bush and every jutting limb 
carried a menace and it was with relief that they 
finally moored the launch to the log wharf. 

“ Well, bless my soul and body, it’s the boys,” 
exclaimed Willis, opening the front door on the 
visitors’ insistent ring. “ What brings you here 
this time o’ day or rather night? Hadn’t felt 
anxious, for I knew Abe’s shingle roof would 
keep you dry even if the tents went out of busi- 
ness.” 

“ But, look here,” he continued as the light 
of the hall lamp fell full on the two serious faces. 
“ What’s happened? Where are the other 
boys? ” 

In broken sentences they told of their appre- 
hensions. Willis was worried, desperately wor- 
ried, but he put on a bold front in order to calm 
the boys. 

“ Can’t be as bad as that,” he insisted. “ Those 


172 The Boy Scouts of the Air 

fellows made for shelter in the woods somewhere. 
They know how to take care of themselves, yon 
may count on that. Expect to hear them pnll in 
here any minute. Now come in the sitting room 
and tell us about that fellow you ran across on 
the Lake this morning.” 

Seated comfortably, Dinks recounted the en- 
counter with the strange boat and its unpleasant 
occupants. 

“ You say the man with the pistol was the 
same fellow that disappeared from the launch 
below Deep Creek? Describe him.” 

Dinks sketched the man’s appearance in a few 
words but no recognition was aroused in the 
host’s mind. 

“ Now let’s hear what the prisoner looked 
like. ’ ’ 

Dinks undertook this task likewise, not omit- 
ting to mention an ugly scar above the left eye. 
For a few moments Willis appeared to be medi- 
tating. 

“ By George! ” he broke out. “ I believe I’ve 
got it. Think I know him. Wonder what new 
devilment he’s been up to. You say he looked 
queer when Long Ridge was mentioned, and the 


A Night of Anxiety 


173 


man with the pistol seemed never to have heard 
of it. We must get hold of that crowd to-mor- 
row, bright and early. Now try not to worry 
about Chandler and Royall. Sure they ’ll turn 
up soon, and to-morrow by daybreak I’ll have 
the Lake and woods scoured. We’ll find ’em all 
right. Hard luck we can’t phone or telegraph 
to Walke. Wires out of commission from the 
storm, but he’ll he in early in the morning, bet 
your bottom dollar on that. Now, I’ll find Mrs. 
Willis and see if we can scare up something warm 
and cheering in the eating and drinking line.” 

Not even the delicious supper, the cheering 
presence of Mrs. Willis, the incessant and care- 
free babble of the Willis children and the brave 
talk of Willis, senior, succeeded in diverting the 
minds of the guests from their dejection before 
a probable tragedy. Up to this day the thought 
that anything terrible could happen to their 
friends had never once entered their minds, and 
the experience struck to the roots of their young 
hearts. 

Hour after hour dragged on over the expectant 
group of three sitting on the portico, and no 
encouraging sounds were borne on their tense 


174 The Boy Scouts of the Air 

ears from the direction of the canal. Willis 
talked flivver and more flivver, arousing flashes 
of interest from time to time, hut without en- 
thusiasm himself, he excited little in the ab- 
stracted minds of the lads. Finally, on the 
stroke of one o’clock, he said: 

“ You hoys better go to bed. Need all your 
strength for to-morrow. I’ll sit up a while 
longer. If anything or anybody turns up I’ll 
wake you right away.” 

After some protest, Dinks and Headlight al- 
lowed themselves to be led to an airy bedroom, 
and whether it was the luxury of a mattress and 
clean linen or utter weariness of spirit, they had 
scarcely stretched themselves out before they 
were sound asleep. 

Mr. Willis sat on through the few hours that 
remained before dawn. He watched while the 
clouds vanished from the sky and the stars ap- 
peared once more, but no sound did he hear that 
announced the missing boys. Very quietly he 
sat, puffing at his old pipe and planning, plan- 
ning. At the first hint of day he began to bestir 
himself. In their sleeping quarters in the rear 
of his own house, he aroused Jim and another 


A Night of Anxiety 


175 


negro man, and directed them to take his launch 
and explore the lake shore thoroughly, looking 
out particularly for any spots that might shelter 
the canoe. He himself would follow in the Carrie 
Call. He then awoke his wife and told her that, 
in case the hoys stirred before his return, to 
apologize for his taking their boat without leave 
and to tell them to wait for him at the house. 

About five hours later he was back, looking 
perhaps a trifle more cheerful. He made straight 
for the hangar and, after inspecting his flivver, 
returned to the house. Discovering that the boys 
were still sound asleep, he called to them to dress 
as fast as they could and come down. 

“ Found them? ” shouted two expectant voices. 

“ No, not yet,** was the reply, “ but I think 
we’re on the trail. ’ ’ 

It took less than ten minutes for the two lads 
to make their appearance on the porch. 

“ Been out since daybreak,” Mr. Willis re- 
turned to their anxious queries. “ Been out 
scouring the Lake with Jim and Jake. Abe 
didn’t have any news, so with that Long Bidge 
business in mind, I pushed on up the right shore 
and after hunting a good long while we found 


176 The Boy Scouts of the Air 

the canoe pulled up in the reeds and turned over, 
and under it some soggy grub and a pair of 
field glasses.” 

“ They’re not drowned then! ” put in Dinks 
with a sigh of relief. The eyes of both the boys 
were glowing with anxious expectancy and their 
hands twitched nervously. 

“ No, that’s sure, they’re not drowned. They 
evidently landed and went to exploring the woods. 
So the point is to locate them. The reason 
they haven’t been back to the boat is plain 
enough. The rain has made the Swamp impass- 
able. I’m afraid they’re not near the shore 
either, for all of us raised a yell at the top of 
our lungs but got no reply. I then decided the 
best thing I could do was to leave the men there 
to push into the woods as soon as the sun dries 
the mud a little, and as it’s going to be a 
scorching day, I hope it won’t take many hours. 
Meanwhile, I’ve got another plan.” 

“ What’s that? ” asked Headlight with almost 
panting interest. 

“ I’ll tell you in a little while, but we’ll wait 
and see if Buck doesn’t turn up. He could 
handle the scheme better than I can. Meanwhile, 


A Night of Anxiety 177 

we’ll have some breakfast. You boys must eat 
something. ’ ’ 

During the meal Mr. Willis was summoned to 
the front door, and was surprised to face the 
bearded man of the strange launch. 

“ Mr. Willis I take it? 99 conjectured the stran- 
ger, holding out his hand. 

Mr. Willis acknowledged his identity and took 
the hand offered. 

“ Louder ’s my name,” explained the stranger, 
“ sheriff of Princess Anne County.” He dis- 
played his badge of authority, and looked par- 
ticularly burly and important. 

“ Any news of the boys missing on the Lake? ” 
pressed Willis, with ill suppressed excitement. 

“ Not exactly. Heard about that but sorry 
can’t give you any information. Ain’t seen them 
since the other night.” 

“ I heard about the way you dropped on those 
boys. It was a confounded outrage,” said Willis, 
in a thoroughly exasperated tone. 

Mr. Louder turned red and looked aggres- 
sive, but apparently decided to subdue his feel- 
ings for the time being. 

“ Outrage is a rather strong word, Mr. 


178 The Boy Scouts of the Air 

Willis,” he blustered. u Me and my friends 
are up here on some private business. We’re 
officers of the law and we’re doing our duty, 
and it ain’t no leadpipe cinch, either. We 
warn’t figurin’ on givin’ it away either till them 
boys got kinder mixed up in it.” 

“ What’s that? ” interjected Willis hotly. 

“ Keep cool, will you? ” returned Mr. Louder. 
“ I don’t mean we got anything against them 
but they’ve come in this business on the side. 
We warned ’em off the island for their own 
good. We told ’em it’ warn ’t no place for boys. 
Fact is, we’re hunting a criminal and, when 
we found out there were folks on that island, 
we had to investigate and we done it.” 

“ You meant well,” conceded Mr. Willis, 4 4 but 
what has all this got to do with the missing 
boys? That’s what interests me now.” 

“ As I said,” continued Louder in leisurely 
fashion, “ we’re hunting for a crook. He 
escaped from the pen three months ago, and 
warn’t nothin’ heard of him till we got a clue 
a week or so ago. Don’t mind tellin’ you 
there’s a right respectable reward offered.” 

Mr. Louder produced from his pocket and 


A Night of Anxiety 179 

handed to the other an exceedingly dirty hand- 
bill. Willis gave a start as he gazed at the 
repulsive face thereon depicted, and read the 
description with a frown. 

. 44 Do you think this man could possibly be 
hiding at Long Ridge, ” he asked with deepest 
concern. 

44 That’s what we want to find out,” returned 
Louder. 44 Never heard tell of it till them boys 
that was out fishing yesterday let out about 
it being seen from a airplane. Mr. Sykes run 
into ’em when he was bringing in the brother of 
that scoundrel.” He pointed to the* face on 
the handbill. 44 He laid for him and caught 
him redhanded with some o’ the stuff in his 
boat. He’s been bootlegging around here con- 
siderable and we had the dots on him all right.” 

44 From Ballyhack? ” asked Willis anxiously. 

44 Reckon your hands have been gettin’ some 
of his liquor,” observed Louder suspiciously. 

44 Better quit reckoning and go on with the 
story,” retorted Willis angrily. 

44 Well, we had a warrant for him all right 
and we ’lowed to kill two birds with one stone 
but we ain’t got but one so far, though we’ve 


180 


The Boy Scouts of the Air 


been patrolling around the Lake with rowboats. 
As I was saying, them boys give us a hint 
and we planned to drop over and find out 
something from that boy that went off in the 
canoe but the rain come down so tamal hard 
we had to lie low in the shack with that prisoner 
of ours.” 

“ Hurry, please,’ ’ urged Willis. “ Time is 
precious this morning.” 

Mr. Louder went on in his leisurely way. 

“ We spent nearly all night tryin’ to worm 
something out of that cantankerous bootlegger 
but he swore his tongue to a frazzle that he 
didn’t know nothin’ about his brother. Fact 
is, he started by swearing he never had a 
brother, but we downed him on that pretty 
quick. We had reliable information that the 
convict made for this swamp several weeks ago, 
and the natural conclusion was that his brother 
was in cahoots with him. Sykes — that’s my 
friend that nabbed the bootlegging cuss — took 
in the way he looked when them boys men- 
tioned Long Eidge. It was as clean giveaway as 
ever was, and Sykes knowed right away he 
had him, for he’s got the keenest pair o’ eyes 


A Night of Anxiety 


181 


I ever seed in a man’s head. It was Sykes too 
that left the launch before we got to Deep 
Creek and slipped over to Ballyhack and found 
out his man warn’t there before he rounded 
him up on the Lake.” 

“ For Heaven’s sake, Mr. Louder,” exclaimed 
Willis with growing impatience, “ I don’t care 
to hear any more about your bootlegger. What’s 
uppermost in my mind is the missing boys. 
Suggest anything you can and suggest it quick. 
Do you think the convict is at Long Ridge? ” 

4 4 Ain’t got no doubt of it. Sykes figures it 
out that way and, when it comes to working 
things out in your head, you’d have to go a 
powerful long way to beat Sykes.” 

“ Now, here,” said Willis feverishly, “ we 
found the canoe the boys were in.” 

“ Heard that from that old nigger on the 
island this momin’,” interrupted Louder, 4 4 and 
sent up our men on the trail right .away.” 

“ Did, did you? Well, it looks as if the 
boys tried to make Long Ridge, if they didn’t 
actually get there, and something’s got to be 
done. There’s not a minute, not a second, to 
lose.” 


182 The Boy Scouts of the Air 


“■Well,” declared Louder with provoking 
calmness, “ I tell you I’ve sent my men on 
the trail, though there ain’t no tellin’ when 
they’ll get through the woods even if they find 
a road. They ain’t learned how to walk on 
water right good yet, and that marsh ain’t 
no better ’n water now.” 

“ I left my men there, too,” said Willis, 
“ with directions to push on through as soon 
as they possibly could. But, at the very best, 
it will take four or five hours to reach Long 
Ridge, and who knows what may happen to 
the boys, if something hasn’t happened already. 
Do you think that scoundrel is capable of harm- 
ing those lads? ” 

“ He ain’t committed murder yet,” explained 
Louder, pointing to the statements on the hand- 
bill, and then added consolingly: “ But there 
ain’t no tellin’ what a cuss like that will do to 
cover up his tracks.” 

“ Great Heavens! ” exclaimed Willis, “ Some- 
thing must — ” 

At this point the two boys rushed out on 
the porch. Already in a fever of excitement 
and anxiety at Willis’ long absence, they found 


A Night of Anxiety 


183 


an excuse for bounding from the table the 
moment their alert ears had detected the throb 
of an approaching motor. 

“ It’s Buck! ” they both shouted wildly, and 
then stopped short as their eyes fell on the 
sheriff . A feeling that something terrible had 
happened gripped their hearts. 


CHAPTER XVI 


RESCUE FROM THE AIR 

“ There’s not a minute to be lost! ” exclaimed 
Buck after he had heard of the boys’ story 
from the group that gathered about him. “ Not 
a minute to be lost. This situation is serious, 
mighty serious! ” 

His chin was working as if he were on the 
point of giving way to his emotions. He felt 
the need of instant action to brace himself up. 

u As I told you,” repeated Willis, “ my men 
will work through the swamp as soon as the 
mud dries a little, and — ’ ’ 

“ But how long will that be? ” interrupted 
Buck as he gulped down something that had 
risen in his throat. 

“ ’Fraid they can’t get to Long Ridge in 
less than four or five hours, but I’m hoping 
they’ll find the boys on the road somewhere.” 

“ Let us hope so, but we can’t wait even 
an hour, with that criminal loose.” 

184 


Rescue From the Air 


185 


“ My men will attend to him,” said Louder 
pompously. 

“ Yes, after — after the worst has happened,” 
retorted Buck fiercely. “ I tell you, Willis, we 
can’t wait. There’s another way.” 

He looked at his friend sharply and caught the 
flash of intelligence in his eye.” 

“ I know. I had thought of it already, and — 
I’d been looking over the flivver. Unfortunately 
Tucker’s away and won’t be in till I don’t 
know exactly when, and I — ” 

“ What’s the other way? ” put in Dinks. 

“ From the air,” returned Buck, “ from the 
air, boy,” and then continuing to Willis: “ The 
flivver won’t do. At least two will have to go 
for this business, and you won’t do either. 
You’ve got a family. I’m the one to attend 
to this.” 

4 ‘ But — ’ ’ started Willis excitedly. 

“ No 4 buts ’ about it, Willis, you’re ruled 
out. ’ ’ 

4 4 But,” pursued Willis, changing his tack, 
“ have you thought about the difficulty of mak- 
ing a landing? ” 

“ I’m not thinking just now.# I’m going to 


186 


The Boy Scouts of the Air 


make a landing if I can — and, if I can’t, well, 
by Heaven, I’m going to make a landing any- 
how. Now, quick, here, men,” he called to 
Louder and several others who stood in the 
group, 44 who’s got the manhood to take a gqn 
and go with me? ” 

Mr. Bull, the storekeeper, heard a mysterious 
summons from his business and turned away 
hastily. 

4 4 You, Louder? You want to make the re- 
ward, I understand. Now’s your chance, man. 
Now! ” 

Louder ’s stomach relaxed visibly from its 
usual prominence, and his complexion turned yel- 
lowish white. 

44 I’ve never tried one of them things,” he 
protested. 

44 Now’s your chance, quick, man, quick. You 
want the reward.” 

44 Want the reward, all right and going to 
get it,” he asserted, 44 but it’s not my business 
to travel that way,” 

44 No, I suppose not,” retorted Buck, eying 
his stout frame with the utmost contempt. 
44 You’re stuck on your old Mother Earth, you 


Rescue From the Air 187 

are. A couple of boys fewer in the world don’t 
amount to anything to you! ” 

“ Let me go! You’ve got to let me go!” 
declared Dinks with dauntless resolution. 

“ No, me! Let me go! ” pleaded Headlight. 
“ Look here, Buck, you’ve just got tjo let me 
go! ” 

“ Boys, you can’t go,” asserted Buck firmly. 
“ You, Headlight, are out of the question. I 
promised your father not to take you and you 
are scout enough to know what that means.” 

Headlight hung his head dejectedly. 

“ You, Dinks,” continued Buck, “ why, you 
don’t know what you’re asking. You don’t 
know what we may run into.” 

“ I’m a scout, sir,” returned Dinks firmly. 

“I’m not sure of a landing. There may be 
an accident, and even if we make a landing we 
may run into a bullet.” 

“I’m a scout, sir,” repeated Dinks, setting 
his teeth. 

“ I say, Willis, isn’t there any other man 
here who can handle a gun? ” Buck hurried 
on, ignoring Dinks’ rejoinder. “ When will 
Tucker be back? ” 


188 


The Boy Scouts of the Air 


“ I told you, it’s not certain. You can’t 
wait. I am determined — ’ ’ 

“ You may be as determined as you like. 
You’ve got a wife there and a family, and 
besides,” continued Buck, pointing to Willis’ 
right hand, “ you’ve got a mashed thumb. So 
that settles it.” 

y Willis looked hopelessly at his swathed thumb, 
the injury to which he had completely for- 
gotten in the excitement. 

“ But — ” 

“ Close up, Willis,” demanded Buck firmly. 
“ I’m going it alone.” 

He turned sharply and began examining his 
machine. 

“ I’m a scout, sir,” said Dinks even more 
emphatically than before as he saluted and 
approached his leader. “ You are not going 
alone. I think I have proved I can handle 
a gun.” 

Buck paused, turned and gazed at the boy 
with undisguised admiration. “ You’re a hero, 
Dinks,” he asserted warmly, and then added 
with a catch in his voice: 4 4 But, boy, you 
can’t go.” 


Rescue From the Air 


189 


4 4 Would you keep a son back if you had 
one! ” persisted the lad. 

Buck’s eyes moistened, and turning to Willis, 
he said : 4 4 Willis, would you approve my taking 
him! ” 

4 4 I — I think — I think I would let him go. ’ ’ 

44 Dinks,” said Willis, 44 go to the phone 
and ask your father.” 

This he said in a tone that implied he con- 
sidered the wild proposal as definitely settled 
in the negative. 

44 Wire down. Phone not working,” explained 
Willis. 

Dinks’ eyes glowed. Buck appeared to be 
thinking deeply for a moment. 

44 In that case I might take you on a recon- 
noitering expedition, but I’m not going to land 
with you if — ” 

Without waiting to hear anything further 
Dinks began to shout wildly and threw his arms 
around Headlight, who received his enthusiastic 
outburst in dejected silence. 

44 If I see any danger,” continued Buck. 
44 You hear, boy” — he had to shout to be 
heard by the excited youngster — 44 if there is 


190 The Boy Scouts of the Air 

any danger. Under these circumstances, YvTllis, 
do you think it’s all right to take him up? ” 

4 ‘ I think — I think — I think I would. But 
say, Buck, my thumb is not so bad. I could 
work a trigger.” 

“ Dinks, you go,” declared Buck, as if com- 
ing to a great and final decision. “ A scouting 
expedition, you understand. You’ve got your 
rifle with you? ” 

The boy stopped his demonstration to answer 
a dreary no and explain he had left it on the 
island. 

“ Willis, it will take me ten minutes or so 
to go over my machine; Lend Dinks your 
rifle and the automatic pistol, too. I’m pro- 
vided for. Step lively. Not a minute to lose. 
Don’t stop to talk about going yourself. I’ll 
smash your bald head before you do that.” 

Willis evidently took the last threat in the 
spirit it was intended, turned and hurried in 
the direction of the house. Louder, who up 
to this time had continued a fidgety and em- 
barrassed listener, announced: 

“ Can’t help you any, it seems. Might as 
well get back to the Lake. ’ ’ 


Rescue From the Air 


191 


“ Don’t think yon can,” retorted Buck tartly, 
without looking up from his labor, “ except I 
might suggest that you take a look at my 
young pal there if you want to look at a hero. 
You may not have had many chances.” 

Louder turned and stalked away, nursing his 
injured vanity but incapable of finding a suit- 
able retort. 

4 4 Hurry,” Buck called after him contemptu- 
ously. “ Hurry, or you’ll let us get there ahead 
of you.” 

In ten minutes Willis was back, beads of 
perspiration rolling from his florid face. In 
one hand he carried a rifle and in the other 
a basket. The pistol was in his pocket. 

Buck had about completed a satisfactory 
inspection. Dinks had fished out some head- 
gear from the cockpit and equipped himself 
for his aerial journey. Headlight had been 
pleading with tears in his eyes, and Buck was 
administering his final consolation as Willis 
came puffing up. 

“ What’s that? ” asked the flyer as his glance 
fell on the basket. 

“ You see, it’s this way,” panted Willis, 


192 The Boy Scouts of the Air 

trying to look as cheery as possible, “ Mrs. 
Willis feels sure you’re going' to find these 
boys, though she knows you’re not going to 
light, and poor dear girl, she is afraid they’ll 
be hungry and what should she do but tumble 
everything to eat she could find in the pantry 
into this basket and she told me to tell you 
to drop it to the boys. She thinks you are 
going to circle around a few feet above the 
ground, I reckon, and drop it gently, so nothing 
would break. It’s astonishing how ignorant 
women are about aviation. Got any room for 
this? ” 

“ Sure we have,” returned Buck, somewhat 
impatient at the length of the other’s harangue. 
“ Toss it in, and, Willis, old boy, you and your 
wife think of everything. Pray God we may 
eat it with the boys. Haven’t got time to do 
any more talking. Quick, Dinks.” 

Dinks armed himself promptly and climb- 
ing into the pilot’s place was firmly strapped 
in. As Buck took his seat in the cockpit, Willis 
was still talking rapidly to hide his emotion. 

44 Mrs. Willis felt so strongly about this she 
couldn’t bear to come out to see you off, but 


Rescue From the Air 


193 


she’s praying for yon right this minute. Good- 
bye! good luck! We’ll expect you all back to 
dinner . 9 9 

In his excitement he forgot his friend was not 
supposed to land and that the guns Dinks carried 
were merely for ornament. Somehow, he felt 
that they were going to land after all. And 
that seemed to be the opinion of Headlight, who 
simply boo-hooed without any restraint, while 
Willis patted him on the back consolingly. In 
the distance stood a fringe of color, the negroes 
of the neighborhood gathered to watch the 
spectacle, while Mr. Bull peeped slyly from the 
window of his store. 

Buck, meanwhile, got Headlight and Willis 
sufficiently composed to give the plane a shove. 
He clutched the rod as the machine rolled on 
and then rose skyward. 

The roaring motor and whirring propeller 
made talking difficult, but Dinks managed to 
make himself heard. 

“ Sure you know the place! 99 asked Dinks 
watching closely the fast moving earth below 
them. 

“ Sure, and I’m heading right for it. Keep 


194 The Boy Scouts of the Air 

your eye peeled for the open place near the 
head of the Lake. Looked the other day like a 
fair-sized stretch. I had to depend on Happy’s 
eyes, though, and he was so excited I’m not 
sure he took in things right. He was sure he 
saw a house as we circled down fairly low 
before we turned back. Don’t know what the 
ground’s like. Got your head with you, boy? ” 

“You bet,” affirmed Dinks boldly. 

“No danger of your caving in? ” asked 
Buck again. 

“ Try me and see,” was the boy’s valiant 
reply. 

“ No more talking then and look. Let me 
know when we’re near it. Won’t be but a 
minute or two longer.” 

Buck steered his machine straight ahead, now 
that they were at a sufficient altitude, and 
almost sooner than it takes to tell it the great 
sparkling Lake spread out to their left and 
just below the speeding flyers the ground was 
splotched with the dark green of the forest. 

“ There! there! I see it,” shouted Dinks, 
“ right ahead, we’re almost on it. There! ” 

The machine suddenly began to circle, sliding 


Rescue From the Air 


195 


down nearer the earth. Buck had acted in- 
stantly. 

“ What do yon see? ” he called. 

‘ ‘ A field — a cabin — ” 

Lower went the flyer, circling, circling, till 
the earth was but a few hundred feet below. 

“ Grip your gun, boy,” exhorted Buck, “ and 
look.” 

“ I think we can make it,” declared the 
boy. “ You are going to, aren’t you, Buck? ” 

“ With God’s help, I think I am.” 

As they circled lower and lower there 
appeared an overgrown field, surrounded by 
forests on three sides. On the other side spread 
a vast cane brake — one of the ‘ ‘ lights ’ ’ of the 
Swamp. 

“ I must miss that shack and come to a 
stop near the lake end,” Buck muttered. 

Lower and lower they came and suddenly 
Dinks yelled feverishly : 6 6 Buck, Buck ! ’ ’ 

“ What! ’’ came back almost in fierce eager- 
ness. 

“ I see the fellows! 0 Buck! they’re run- 
ning! ” 

“ Anybody else! ” 


196 The Boy Scouts of the Air 

“No! No! Buck! Buck! they’re yelling! 
I know they’re yelling, though I can’t hear it! 
Buck, and we can land, it looks all right.” 

There was indeed a wild shout rising from 
below but it -was completely drowned by the 
throb of the motor. 

“ Now! now! boys,” called Buck. “ Steady.” 

In a few more narrowing circles the plane 
soared just above the trees, headed for the 
earth, then down she came near the center of 
the old field, not many feet from the cabin. 
There was a violent lurch, a bumping over the 
rough ground and through the weeds until, 
with one final jolt she came to a stop, fifty 
feet from the jungle entrance to Long Ridge. 

Both man and lad were badly shaken up, 
but Dinks managed to unstrap himself speedily 
and seize his rifle ready for action, and Buck’s 
hand released the joyrod to grasp his auto- 
matic, but an instant assured both that all 
precautions were unnecessary. 

Two wild boys, yelling in a perfect ecstasy 
of joy, were bearing down upon them. As 
the crew of the flyer dropped stiffly to the 
ground each was grasped by a pair of arms. 


Rescue From the Air 


197 


They were captives in the hands of Penny 
and Happy. 

“ Thank God! ” Buck managed to gasp. 

As soon as Happy was able to articulate he 
broke out, “ We’ve got him! We’ve got him! 
We’ve got him! ” 

“ Who? who? ” came from Dinks and the 
leader. 

“ The crook that lived here! The crook! ” 
shouted Happy. “ Come and see.” 

He pointed at the same time to a shack at 
the edge of the forest opposite the point where 
they stood and well back of the cabin and, 
before either of the rescuers had an opportunity 
to ask the story of the lads, they were dragged 
almost bodily in the indicated direction. 


CHAPTEE XVn 


CAPTURING A MOONSHINER 

When the group stood before the door of the 
wretched shack, Happy, with hands trembling 
from excitement, produced a key from his pocket, 
inserted it in the lock and threw open the door, 
disclosing the scene within to the amazed eyes 
of Dinks and Walke. Stretched on the filthy 
floor lay a hideous looking creature, bound 
hand and foot and with a gag in his mouth. A 
reddish stubble covered the head and cheeks, 
and the closed bloated eyelids were shadowed 
by shaggy brows of the same color. His heavy 
breathing and an overturned jug explained his 
state of stupor. 

A cot, a table, a cupboard and two rush- 
bottomed chairs constituted the furniture. There 
was, in addition, a rusty stove, supporting a 
tub from which protruded a coil of lead con- 
nected with a tightly covered jar on the floor. 
Several sacks of what appeared to be bran and 
198 


Capturing a Moonshiner 199 

corn stood in one corner while in another rested 
a pick, an axe and a shovel. One glance sufficed 
to convince Buck of the occupation of the owner 
of the hovel. 

“ Great Jehosaphat! ” he exclaimed, as he 
gazed with loathing at the prostrate wretch, 
“ do you mean to tell me that this is the work 
of you two boys? Let’s have it. How did you 
do it? ” 

Dinks was no less eager in his inquiries, and 
when the four had stepped some distance away 
to free their eyes from the sorry sight within, 
Happy, at Penny’s suggestion, began the story 
of the adventure, running over in a few words 
the earlier events of the day before and even 
neglecting the bear episode in his hurry to get 
to the time when he and his companion found 
themselves locked in the cabin by some unknown 
hand. 

“ Gosh! when I heard that lock snap,” he 
went on with his narrative, “ I was so scared 
that if I’d had any hair it sure would have 
stood straight up on end. We thought our 
time had come. We didn’t know what was 
going to happen. 


200 The Boy Scouts of the Air • 

“ Well, sir, we stood there ’fraid to bat an 
eye. I could feel cold shivers running up and 
down my lightning-rod. I reckon we stood about 
half an hour. That right, Penny? ” 

4 4 Seemed like ten years,’ ’ suggested Penny. 

“ Anyhow, when that guy didn’t seem to be 
coming back right away I crept over and froze 
onto the rifles, and stuck Penny’s in his paw. 
Then, after waiting a while we got the nerve 
to feel for our wet rags and slip ’em on again. 
Then we sat down and waited some more and 
we got up the nerve to whisper, for the rain 
was raising so much racket outside we thought 
it would drown out our voices even if any- 
body was hanging around. We sat there until 
dark, so blamed scared that we even forgot to 
get hungry. 

“ Dark came on and nothing happened. I’d 
been buzzing around a lot in my head, and 
all of a sudden it sorter came over me that 
maybe that guy didn’t know we were in there 
when he locked the door. That put a little 
pep in me, and I whispered to Penny we were 
going to get out. Then he asked me how, 
and I said, 4 Look, you big boob,’ and pointed 


Capturing a Moonshiner 


201 


at the biggest hole in the darn rotten roof that 
the rain was pouring through. 

“ It was too dark to see, but we could hear 
and feel it all right. Then we struck a match or 
two and sorter got our bearings and pulled 
the boxes over and piled them on top of one 
another, and they were darn heavy, too. Then 
Penny got on top and gave me a back so I 
could reach up to a beam. I skinned up and 
punched off some rotten shingles. They just 
peeled off. 

“ Then I stuck my bean up through the sky- 
light and got a good hold of a rafter and 
pulled myself right up on the roof garden. 
Some garden, too, all covered with slimy moss. 

“ It was dark as pitch and I wasn’t sure 
something wouldn’t pick me right off, but I 
warn’t going back, that was one thing certain. 
Then old Penny passed up the guns and I 
reached down and gave him a fist, till he got 
through. 

“ I slid down and dropped in the mud. It 
was mushy and didn’t even jar me. Then 
Penny passed down the guns and slid after 
me. We stuck close to the cabin wall and 


202 The Boy Scouts of the Air 

listened. Didn’t hear a sound, and gee! it was 
dark, and the rain still coming down, but not 
near as hard as it had been. Then all of a 
sudden I saw a light.” 

“ You didn’t. 1 saw it,” interrupted Penny 
positively. 

“ I did see it.” 

“ You didn’t see it till I showed it to you.” 

“ Well, I saw it then, didn’t I? Who’s telling 
this story? ” 

“ You are, hut don’t be claiming my part, 
that’s all.” 

Here Buck interfered and, peace being 
restored, Happy continued: 

. “ Soon as we saw that light — it was just a 
teeny one — we held a council of war.” 

Here Happy made a comic gesture. 

“ Warn’t anything to do but attack the enemy, 
so I gingered Penny up.” 

“ Ginger the mischief! ” protested Penny. 
“ You were so scared I heard your teeth rattling. 
Talk about gingering me up! ” 

“ You heard your own and thought they were 
mine,” bantered Happy, showing his gleaming 
set. 


Capturing a Moonshiner 203 

“ Shut up, Happy, you were both scared stiff, ” 
put in Dinks. “ Might as well own up.” 

“ All right, old bearcat, you know all about 
it.” 

“ Stop your fooling and go on,” interfered 
Buck, f rowning. 

“I’m going on if they’ll let me,” declared 
Happy, pretending innocence. 

“ Well, scared or not, we bucked up and crept 
through the weeds, Indian-file, ready to tackle 
any blamed thing that came along. But I tell 
you we crept powerful slow. I reckon it took us 
fifteen minutes to get near that shack and we 
kept our eyes glued on the light, and first thing 
we knew we saw a lantern, plain as day, through 
an open door, but blamed if we could see a soul. 
So we moseyed a little closer to get a better look 
in the den, but the old lantern was so dim we 
couldn’t make out much till we were right plumb 
at the door, and then, gee! I came near throw- 
ing a duck fit and sorter backed into Penny.” 

“ Sounds as if you were leading,” commented 
Buck, smiling. 4 4 You retreated into the rear- 
guard.” 

There was a general laugh at this. 


204 The Boy Scouts of the Air 

u The rear-guard gave an inch or two, too,” 
was Happy ’s rejoinder. 

“ Had to, when you butted into me like a ton 
of bricks,” came from Penny. 

“ Quit your back talk and go on,” snapped 
Buck, forgetting that he was responsible for the 
interruption. 

“ All right, Cap,” acceded Happy, with a 
comic salute. “ As the old man was saying, I 
was sorter phazed when I saw that big stiff 
lying out on the floor looking like he was dead in 
that dim lantern light. But somehow it sorter 
cheered me up to think that maybe he was dead, 
so I took another look about two feet nearer, and 
he didn’t move. Then we heard him give a sort 
of snort, and we backed back, as the saying is, 
and we didn’t feel so brave when we found he 
was alive. 

“ Then we waited about ten minutes, and still 
he didn’t move, and I was getting pretty sick of 
standing out there in all that rain, so what do 
you think? — I own up to it, fellows — that 
Penny there, what should he do but push on 
ahead of me and jump right in the door like he 
was a regular tin soldier. He’d seen that jug 
and figured out that the guy was dead — dead 


Capturing a Moonshiner 205 

drunk. Well, you bet I wasn’t going to let him 
slip one over on me that way, so I chased right 
on in, too.” 

Penny smiled consciously at this point, when 
the eyes of the other listeners fell upon him after 
sundry winks and grins had punctuated the last 
part of Happy’s statement. 

“ First time Happy didn’t do it all,” re- 
marked Dinks. “ He sure needs a doctor.” 

“ Go to grass! ” directed Happy. “ As I was 
saying,” he proceeded, “ I followed Penny, and 
we two just naturally lit on that old fellow’s 
carcass, and had him pinned down before you 
could say < Jack Robinson,’ but he didn’t even 
flicker, and just kept on sawing wood with that 
ugly old beak of his, and every now and then 
he would give a sort of snort to vary the concert. 

“ We just roosted on top of him a minute or 
two and got a good look at the den with all that 
junk you saw just now till our eyes stuck to 
some corn bread and bacon on the table; and 
that reminded me I was so hungry I could eat 
nails. That greasy stuff almost made my mouth 
water, blamed if it didn’t.” 

“ Cut that out and tell ’em how we tied him 


206 


The Boy Scouts of the Air 


up,” recommended Penny, u or let me finish 
up the story.” 

“ You keep out. This is my job. Well, I 
knew we had to pin that cuss down while he was 
helpless; so while Penny kept sitting on him 
with his gun ready to talk if the brute got 
sassy, I hunted around and found a piece of an 
old blanket and some rags and a piece of rope, 
and then we took our belts, and the way we did 
knot that sucker up was a caution. Showed some 
good scout training, didn’t it, Buck? ” 

“ You bet. Couldn’t have done as well my- 
self,” approved Buck proudly. “ Would take 
an old tar to beat it.” 

* 1 Soon as we had him wound up right we stuck 
that rag in his mouth for a gag. Wouldn’t have 
thought of that if I hadn’t seen ’em do it in the 
movies. Then we went straight for that grub, 
but, great day in the morning! just about two 
bites took away all the appetite we had col- 
lected in twelve hours and we settled it we 
wouldn’t tackle the rest until -we were right 
down starving. Then we took a good look at the 
junk in the room.” 

“ The worm,” suggested Buck. 


Capturing a Moonshiner 


207 


“ Whatever you call it. Then I took a little 
nap while Penny kept watch till he played out 
and woke me up by hammering me in the stomach 
with the butt of his rifle. 

“ Well, as soon as rain stopped and the stars 
came out we took the lantern and the grub and 
locked up the old nightmare and beat it for the 
woods to wait for morning. And when day 
came, after about a year, we found we couldn’t 
get through that mire till it dried some, so we 
kept hid in the bushes till we heard that dear old 
motor singing Home , Sweet Home, and well, sir, 
I felt like I could jump up a thousand feet to 
meet it, I was so blamed happy.” 

To impress his last statement the youngster 
threw his arms around Buck with a bearish hug. 

“ Stop that, fool, get off,” panted Buck, hardly 
able to get his breath. 44 What do you think I 
am — your sugarplum? ” 

“ Quit that roughhouse,” admonished Penny, 
“ and tell ’em about what we shot, or I’ll do it 
myself. ’ 9 

4 4 No you won’t,” declared Happy, dropping 
back to his former attitude, and continuing with 
gleaming eyes. 44 Say, fellows, I clean forgot. 


208 The Boy Scouts of the Air 

What do you think? We had to commit murder 
to get here.” 

“ The mischief you say,” Dinks put in. 
“ What did you murder? A doodle-bug? ” 

“ Doodle-bug, my eye. A man-sized bear, kid. ’ 9 
Whereupon the lad proceeded to relate, with 
many gestures and grimaces, and under the bur- 
den of constant interruptions from Penny, the 
encounter with the black bear and its happy end- 
ing — for the youthful sportsmen. 

Dinks listened open-mouthed, and Buck with 
such admiration that when the tale came to an 
end he was tempted to cut out the stern lecture 
he felt it his duty to administer to the truants 
for all the trouble and anxiety they had caused. 
However, bear or no bear to offset it, he came 
out with the tongue-lashing hot and heavy. 

“ You know how it is,” parried Happy when 
the tempest had subsided. “ YouVe been over 
the other side, and you know when you get a bug 
in your head to do something desperate — some 
adventure or the other — blamed if you can see 
or hear anything else. That was the way with 
me about this Long Ridge. I had to get here 
or bust,” 


Capturing a Moonshiner 20S 

“ Thought I was boss of this patrol,” stormed 
Dinks. “ Nice trick running off without getting 
your commander’s permission. Snide trick, I 
call it, and then tacking that note on Headlight’s 
pants. He’s got it in for you all right, all right.” 

At the thought of Headlight’s expression on 
first seeing his breeches Dinks grinned in spite 
of himself. 

The upshot of the whole matter was that the 
two boys were forgiven. They had penetrated 
the wilderness, shot a monster of the woods, and 
captured an enemy of society. 

“ Reckon you could capture a fellow when he 
was dead drunk,” objected Dinks. “ I could 
round up a whole regiment laid out that way. ’ ’ 

“ That’s all right, Dinks,” said Buck. 4 4 The 
fellows were ready for him, drunk or sober, and 
you’ll have to give it to them. They did them- 
selves proud.” 

Dinks was generous enough to concede that 
he couldn’t have done better himself. 

“ Say, now,” asked Buck, “ did you fellows 
intend to leave that crook to starve while you 
chased back home? ” 

“ Course not,” explained Happy. “ We were 


210 


The Boy Scouts of the Air 


going to send those cop guys back for him. We 
figured he’d sleep about three days from the 
way he looked. But speaking of starved, that’s 
my name. Look here, if we don’t get out of this 
place soon I’ll have to go berrying.” 

He rubbed his stomach with an expressive twist 
of his features. 

“ Say, Buck! ” exclaimed Dinks, looking over 
at the air craft suggestively. “ You forgot 
something. ’ ’ 

“ Blessed if I didn’t,” confessed the flyer, 
bounding up. “ Fellows, we’ve got a dining-car 
aboard. 

Explanations followed and then raptures from 
the two starved heroes. The basket was promptly 
dragged forth and its cover tom off by eager 
hands. 

“ Oh, boy, Penny, cold chicken,” announced 
Happy, as he uncovered that article. 

c 6 Ham ! ’ ’ sang out Penny at his discovery. 

“ Jam! ” came from the other. 

‘ ‘ Pickles ! Sandwiches ! Sardines ! ’ ’ 

“ And, oh, mother, pin a rose on me, here’s 
— what’s this? ” 

To answer his own question Happy poured 


Capturing a Moonshiner 


211 


some dark liquid from a bottle into a glass, and 
smacked his lips over a generous draft. 

“ Raspberry vinegar, or I’ll eat my hat.” 

After Happy had moistened his throat freely 
as a preliminary to free execution of the viands, 
Penny was not far behind, and even Buck and 
Dinks fell in with little less enthusiasm. Mrs. 
Willis had provided abundantly for at least six 
starved men and when the three boys and Buck 
had gone to the limit of their capacity, there still 
remained fragments, which it was voted should 
be given to the exploring parties when they 
reached the Ridge. 

The lunch over, they settled themselves to 
wait. In the first place, the criminal must be 
turned over to the officers, and humanity de- 
manded that he be given food and drink in case 
he came to himself. 

Buck could not think of getting his plane offi 
without some work on the ground to give him a 
smooth starting space. For this Willis’ two 
negro men with the pick and shovel found in 
the bootlegger’s shack would do the business. 
Then, too, Buck was not eager to have the boys 
return through the wood alone. Lastly, they 


212 


The Boy Scouts of the Air 


needed assistance to get the bear on its last 
journey. 

Subjects of conversation were not lacking to 
people who had just been through the most 
thrilling of adventures and three hours of the 
hot morning had brought them close to noon 
when suddenly a shout from Dinks turned the 
eyes of all the others to the sky just over the 
tree tops in the direction of the canal. At the 
same time a faint throb of a motor struck their 
ears. 

“ Jiminy! it’s a plane! ” ejaculated Dinks. 

“ It’s the flivver / 9 cried Happy. 

Then followed a chorus of exclamations and 
comments as the aircraft began to circle above 
the clearing. Down it came to a hundred feet 
above the earth, an arm was stretched out as if 
in greeting to the frantic demonstration below, 
and then the mysterious airman, as if satisfied 
with what he had seen, rose once more and soon 
made off in the same direction from which he 
had come. 

“ Plague take his skin! ” said Buck as he 
watched the wee craft disappear. “ Do you 
know, boys, I believe that was that fool Willis.” 


CHAPTER XVin 


THE REWARD OP THE BRAVE 

The flivver incident furnished excitement for 
some time. Finally Buck went over to the shack 
to inspect the captive, and while he was gone 
Dinks’ thoughts reverted to Headlight. 

“ Tough about Headlight, fellows,” he said. 
“ You two have had fun enough to last a life 
time and I’ve had a dandy trip trying to rescue 
you, and here Headlight hasn’t even had a look 
in. All the thrill he’s had was going fishing. 
Let’s see if we can’t get Buck to take him in his 
plane when he goes home. He can get his dad’s 
permission if he works it right. That kid will 
never get over it if he has to go home and let 
on that he hasn’t even been up once. I’d like to 
see him make a grandstand finish, anyhow.” 

Dinks’ plan met with instant approval, and 
while the lads were scheming ways and means 
for their friend’s glory, weird sounds were heard 
from the shack — groans and mutterings and a 
213 


214 The Boy Scouts of the Air 

strong suspicion of abusive language in a hoarse 
voice. 

“ Must have uncorked the old scamp/ * ob- 
served Dinks. “ He’s sure awake this time. 
Let’s go over and see what’s the matter.” 

Buck appeared instantly at the 'door and or- 
dered them back. A few minutes later he came 
out to get food for the prisoner, but insisted that 
he would attend to the man by himself. He 
evidently did not care for them to hear the 
brute’s curses. After attending to his work of 
charity, he came out with the axe and pro- 
ceeded to break open the door of the cabin where 
the boys had passed their hours of agony. When 
he finished his inspection he joined the boys 
once more. 

“ Know what you fellows were sitting on in 
there? ” he asked with a smile. 

i ‘ Great balls of fire ! ’ ’ exclaimed Penny. ‘ ‘ It 
wasn’t dynamite, was it? ” 

“ Not exactly! Moonshine. Jugs of it.” 

There was a general laugh at Penny’s expense, 
as Buck seated himself once more. 

A half hour later the would-be rescuers ar- 
rived, very muddy and tired. First came the two 


The Reward of the Brave 215 

officers of the law, with their two negroes and 
Jim and Jake trailing after. Their amazement 
at seeing the airplane and the group under a tree 
can be better imagined than described. The 
negroes’ eyes nearly popped from their heads. 

As the white men approached, Buck pointed at 
Penny and Happy. “ Let me introduce you,” 
he began with a meaning grin, “ to my young 
friends, Mr. Pendleton Eoyall and Mr. Henry 
Chandler, who have captured your man for you. 
You will find him in that hut yonder where he 
has been expressing himself in very impolite lan- 
guage about the whole proceedings. In the cabin 
you will find some of his brother’s property.” 

“ What sort of hot air is this? ” asked the 
older man, who announced himself as Mr. Sykes 
and asked the company to shake hands with his 
friend Mr. Knott. 

“You don’t mean to tell me these here kids 
captured that desperate criminal? Can’t stuff 
me with that sort of bosh.” 

“ Fact, though,” asserted Buck, waving his 
hand towards the two much embarrassed heroes. 
“ / certainly didn’t do it. My other young friend 
and myself came in the airplane to the rescue, 


216 The Boy Scouts of the Air 

and found these fellows running round loose and 
the man tied up in the finest professional style. 
Here’s the key, gentlemen, go over and see for 
yourselves.” 

He handed the key to Sykes with extravagant 
courtesy. 

“ If that’s so,” declared Knott, “ it’s the 
beatenest thing I ever heard tell of.” 

The two guardians of the law hastened over to 
assure themselves of the truth of the statement, 
while Buck and the boys tried to smother their 
laughter in the presence of the negroes. The 
interview must have been short even if not 
satisfactory to the prisoner. 

A click as of handcuffs applied was heard, ac- 
companied by mutterings and curses. Sykes 
emerged from the shack alone and came up to 
Buck, with a puzzled look on his ordinarily 
stolid countenance. 

“ Ain’t no doubt about this being the man,” 
he conceded. “ Got all the marks, but how 
them boys did it beats me. Sounds like a dime 
novel. ’ ’ 

“ Beats you, does it? ” returned Buck. i 6 Well, 
here ’s the way it happened. ’ ’ 


The Reward of the Brave 217 

As briefly as possible he told of the boys’ ex- 
ploit, while the negroes stood around in fas- 
cinated attention. 

“ Well, I’ll be gol darned! ” was Sykes’ com- 
ment. “ Reckon they’ll be claimin’ the reward,” 
he speculated, rather sourly. 

“ Don’t give yourself any worry about that,” 
returned Buck. “ If you care to share enough 
with them to help build an airplane they are 
planning, well and good. If not, well — ” 

“ We’ll see about that later,” said Sykes, evi- 
dently relieved, and mentally appropriating the 
whole of the money. “ We’ll see about that 
later. Now what worries us is how to get this 
fellow out of this here Swamp. Wonder if you’d 
mind taking him in your machine. Looks to me 
like that’s the easiest way to manage it.” 

“ Well, of all the nerve,” retorted Buck flaring 
up. “ I beg your pardon. My machine is not 
used for ferrying criminals.” 

Sykes turned away abruptly and, calling his 
black attendants, proceeded back to the shack. 
Not long after, Buck and the boys had the satis- 
faction of seeing the two limbs of the law fol- 
lowed by the two blacks with the surly convict 


218 The Boy Scouts of the Air 

in tow, start off on their return journey through 
the forest. 

Relieved of this feature of the day’s enter- 
tainment, those left turned their minds to plans 
for their own departure. Jim and Jake, forti- 
fied with the remains of the lunch, were set 
actively to work clearing and leveling the ground 
for the plane’s starting space. This completed, 
after several hours’ labor, the men were taken 
aback by the announcement that they were ex- 
pected to 4 4 tote ” a bear home, but even their 
murmurings here were extinguished by promise 
of ample monetary reward and a goodly portion 
of bear steak. 

When the afternoon was half over Buck and 
Dinks made a successful ascent from the ragged 
soil of Long Ridge ; and Happy and Penny, tired 
but jubilant, started off, with the negro attend- 
ants, on their journey through the forest. Just 
as the sun was setting, the four, with the bear 
borne on a stake, floundered through the reeds of 
the lake shore and reached the waiting launch. 
A few minutes later the crew was aboard with 
the canoe in tow, and the lads, leaving the run- 
ning of the boat to the negroes, sank down on 


The Reward of the Brave 219 

the seats and soon were fast asleep; nor did 
they awake till Jake shook them at Abe’s island 
to talk to the old man waiting on the wharf. 

“ ’Fraid we won’t camp np here any longer,” 
announced Penny sleepily, after the man’s first 
effusions of joy were over. “We’ll send up for 
our stuff to-morrow and get it — that is, what 
hasn’t melted.” 

“ Now I comes to think of it,” returned Abe, 
“ I reckon you’se talkin’ sense. Dough I sutny 
will miss you all I reckon you’se talkin’ sense. 
Seem lak you ehillun was lak dat dere* Jonah 
what dey say brung bad luck to de whale. Tain’t 
no tellin’ what sorter critters might come around 
ef you was to stay up here another night. Looks 
lak some folks is jes’ bawn to see trouble.” 

And with this thought in his mind and beam- 
ing over the recent return of his “ ole ’oman,” 
Abe waved the hoys farewell and sped them on 
their way. On to Wallace ton they went, soothed 
by the throb, throb of the busy little engine, and 
there a happy but thoroughly tired pair of boys 
fell into the arms of the assembled household. 


CHAPTER XIX 

HEADLIGHT PUTS ONE OVEB 

Mr. Willis was one great grin. Mrs. Willis 
almost wept with delight. All the little Willises, 
who, several hours before had danced a war 
dance around Dinks and Walke, now put even 
more delirium in their yells and demonstrations 
when the bear was produced. 

“ Swell kid,” thought Dinks to himself, as he 
looked at Penny with brotherly admiration. 
“ When you think a fellow hasn’t got the stuff 
in him, blessed if he don’t show us all some- 
thing. Penny’s great. The fellows don’t tease 
him any more when I’m around or I’ll bump 
their heads for ’em.” 

It was a glorious occasion all around, and was 
to be crowned by a most sumptuous supper. This 
Mrs. Willis hurried off to attend to. 

“ How ’bout that flivver? ” asked Happy, as 
soon as the excitement had subsided to a degree. 
“ Was it you, Mr. Willis? ” 

220 


Headlight Puts One Over 221 

Mr. Willis made a face and gave a knowing 
glance at Walke. 

“ No, it wasn’t,” lie affirmed. 

“ Who was it then? ” insisted Happy. 

“ Well, if you must know,” Buck announced, 
“ it was Tucker. When I got back here I gave 
Mr. Willis the mischief, but I found out it wasn’t 
he, but confound his old skin, I believe he would 
have done it if Tucker hadn’t come in. Seems 
he was so anxious about us that he just couldn’t 
wait any longer. So Tucker went to report and 
a neat job he made of it. Says he got low enough 
to see we were all looking well and then beat it 
back with the good news.” 

“ Look here, Buck,” put in Willis, looking 
desperately guilty. “ The truth might as well 
out. There was another fellow in that flivver.” 

“ There was! There was! Willis, you old 
deceiver! But you couldn’t have got in, that’s 
sure — mot in that baby wagon. What’s the 
joke? I pass.” 

“ Straight goods, Buck, I might as well tell 
you there was a stowaway — not exactly a stow- 
away, because he went with permission — curled 
up in the cockpit.” 


222 


The Boy Scouts of the Air 


The shuffling of uneasy feet became more audi- 
ble and attracted Buck’s attention to a red- 
headed boy standing behind the other three lads. 

“ What are you giving us, Willis? ” insisted 
Buck impatiently. 

“ It was Taylor,” Willis blurted out. 

“ You didn’t tell me that before. Taylor went 
up in that machine! ” 

He turned angrily on the boy, now shrinking 
and red as a poppy. 

“ You went up in that machine, Taylor? ” he 
blustered, shaking his finger at the culprit. 

“ Did Willis let you go? ” 

“ No, sir,” almost tearfully answered the lad. 

“ You know you were positively told you 
could not go up? ” 

“ I know I was, sir.” 

“ And you disobeyed my orders.” 

“ Yes, sir.” 

“ What sort of a scout do you call yourself? 
I — I — ” 

The startled boys had never seen Buck quite 
so angry. 

“ I didn’t disobey father’s orders,” Headlight 
declared, steadying his voice to the best of his 


X92 


Headlight Puts One Over 


223 


ability. “ The phone got to working after 
Tucker came in, and when I found he was going 
up to look for you all, I just had to go, so I called 
up dad and — well, I won ’t say what I told him, 
but lie said, ‘ If that’s the case, yes,’ so I found 
Mr. Tucker could stow me in the bottom and I 
might have helped if we had to land. I couldn’t 
do anything else. All the other fellows had done 
things and I couldn’t be the only one — I couldn’t 
face — ” 

Headlight began to take in his breath as if 
he were trying to suppress a strong inclination 
to blubber. Buck’s face gradually softened and 
he patted the lad on the back. 

“ He told you you might go. All right, old 
Headlight, you’re a hero, too, boy. You’ve got 
the spirit.” 

“ Jiminy! Dinks,” said Happy to his neigh- 
bor, “ Headlight has made a grandstand finish 
after all. Carry on, Headlight,” he called out. 
“ Carry on, boy! ” 

Buck was pacified, Headlight brightened up, 
and a general powwow ensued as to how it all 
came about. 

“ ’Fraid the camping trip will have to end, so 


224 The Boy Scouts of the Air 

far as the Lake’s concerned,” declared Buck, 
“ but Willis wants us to stay here with him a 
while. Says he can put us all up. I don’t think 
you fellows’ parents will mind your staying in 
this land of milk and honey a while longer, and 
you’re going to get instruction how to build a 
flivver, all of you. You too, Penny. If you show 
as much pluck learning as you have in this little 
adventure of yours yea’ll be a past master.” 

“ Say, Headlight,” said Happy with a grin. 
“ Lend the hero one of your freckles to hide his 
blushes.” 

“ I’ll lend you one to try to cover your nerve,” 
shot back Headlight. 

“ Oh, boy, won’t we have some time when we 
get back home,” exulted Dinks. “ Bear, air- 
plane, flivver. Can you beat it? ” 

“ Supper is ready, boys,” called Mrs. Willis’ 
cheery voice. 

“ Here’s where we make a grandstand finish 
all round,” proclaimed Buck, leading the happy 
party. 4 4 The Boy Scouts of the Air in the Great 
Dismal reap their reward.” 


THE END 




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